Whoa! I just learned today that Mike's paternal grand father was a radioman and tailgunner on the B 25 Tondelayo, and his dad's sister's mother in law was a WASP! How cool is that!

the Tondelayo was named for a character that Hedy Lamar played in a 1942 movie

It was the most decorated plane in the 345th Bomber Group, but was too badly damaged to get back to the states for a War Bonds tour. It took out 10 Japanese planes and one Japanese ship, 9 airplanes and the ship were all on the same day in Oct 1943

Returning from the mission over Rabaul Papua New Guinea, roughly fifty Japanese fighters intercepted the B-25s of the 500th BS in a running air battle that lasted seventy-five minutes and resulted in the loss of two B 25s

During the escape, turret gunner Murphy was credited with five victories, plus four others credited that crashed into the sea, attempting to attack the bomber skimming the surface of the ocean, and misjudging their attacks. It successfully returned to base with heavy damage.

Afterwards, the 500th Bombardment Squadron (500th BS) received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for this mission. For the important role in this mission, the Tondelayo became the most famous bomber in the entire 345th Bombardment Group (345th BG) and there was talk about using it on a war bond tour but was too damaged to fly back to the United States.

The extensive damage sustained require the wing and both engines to be replaced and the repairs took six months

above, hand of the cannon barrel Lynn Daker

During late 1944, when the battle damaged squadron was equipped with new replacement B-25J Mitchells, the Tondelayo was retired from flying combat missions and served as a grocery getter/fat cat for the 345th BG and nicknamed "Chow Hound" with the Walt Disney cartoon dog Pluto holding in the mouth a picnic basket overflowing with food including links of sausage stretched out the side dragging on the ground, a dead chicken and a bottle of liquor walking on a street with a fire hydrant. 

The "fat cat" missions were from Biak to Australia where the 345th Bombardment Group (345th BG) was based. (similar to the A20 Steak and Eggs I posted about  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/09/steak-and-eggs-unarmed-20-havoc.html )

the Congressional Gold Medal, one was given to all of the WASPs, in 2010, as you can read in the article below

the statue was also was given to all of the WASPs, the script on the statue reads " We live in the wind and sand, and our eyes are on the stars"

https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-25/41-30669.html

There are only about 50 flight capable B 25s left, and the Tondelayo is one, now operated by the Collings Foundation https://www.collingsfoundation.org/aircrafts/north-american-b-25-mitchell

The nose art on the Tondelayo is the same as on the B 24 Mission Belle, just reversed

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2021/08/mission-belle-what-incredibly-perfect.html