LIFE Magazine photo of a serviceman getting into a B-17 ball turret

Oof. I feel like this is obligatory to post with any mention of it.

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner Randall Jarrell —-

From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

One of the rawest gigs in a war full of raw gigs

gotta be so fucking cold in that thing with the plane at altitude

That really took some balls.