The photo was taken at Kwanghan, China, early on November 11 (Armistice Day), 1944, before the second mission by B-29s to the Japanese naval factory in Omura, Kyushu, Japan. The crew is: (front row, from left), tail gunner Sgt Louis R. Jones Jr. from Pennslyvania, CFC gunner Sgt Paul L. Bunch from Louisiana, radar operator SSgt Harold K. Long of Illinois, left gunner Sgt Howard Collice of Pennsylvania, radio operator Sgt Jules Beerman of New York, right gunner SSgt Frank X. Knapick of Connecticut, (back row, from left) crew chief TSgt A. W. Carpenter of Indiana (who did not fly on the mission as he was a ground crewman), flight engineer 1Lt Frederick G. Bender of Virginia, pilot Capt Arthur J. Hyde of Missouri, co-pilot 2Lt Don H. Chanceller of Missouri, bombardier 1Lt Edward S. Baroody of New York, and navigator 1Lt Richard S. Oeschler of California.
All eleven men onboard went down on the mission just hours after the pre-mission photo was taken.