My father-in-law was also a gunner on a B-17 and his B-17 lies in that desert somewhere. They (the crew) were on a training flight qualifying for gunnery when something went really wrong. He was in the tail gunner position when the mishap occurred. The top gunner swung around and fired a burst that sawed off the vertical stabilizer (not suppose to happen). He told me the plane had seen a lot of combat in Europe and was pieced together and was religated as a trainer! He related that the buzz saw was just above his head and he recalled catching a flash of it as it tumbled passed him. The pilot ordered everybody out while he kept the plane level and fought the controls. Everybody made it out, only casulaity was a broken leg for a bad landing. That ended his career in the Army Air Corps, he shipped out for Europe with the 4thID in late 1944 and saw combat in eastern Germany around Nurinberg as a BAR gunner. He volunteered at age 38 to join the Army, old by any standards. It was what the Greatest Generation did. I miss him.