Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-10
"OutWiHing the Hum
BY Lieutenant Pat O'Brien
Copyright, 1918, by Pat Alva o'Brien.)

Slight repairs, without any particu-
lar thought for my own safety in
/, that unprotected spot, when a shell
came whizzing through the air,
knocked me to the ground and land
ed few feet away. 1t had no soon
er struck than / made a run for
cover and crawled into a shellhole.
would have liked to get farther
away, but | didn't know where the
next shell would burst and l thought
| was fairly safe there. so | squatted
down and let them blaze away.
The only damage | suffered was
from the mud which splattered up
in my face and over my clothes. That
was my introduction to a she'll
hole, and l resolved right there that
the infantry could have all the she'll
hole fighting they wanted, but it did
not appeal to me, though they live
in them through many long night
and l had only sought shelter there
for a few minutes.
After the Germans had complete
ly demolished my machine and
ceased firing. | waited there a short
time, fearing perhaps they might
send over a lucky shot. hoping to
get me after all. But evidently they
concluded enough shells had been
wasted on one man. L crawled out
cautiously, shook the mud off, and
| looked over in the direction where
my machine had once been. There
wasn't enough left for decent
souvenir, but nevertheless L got a
few, such as they were," and readily
observing that nothing could be done
with what was left, | made my way
back to infantry headquarters. where
| was able to phone in report
A little later one OF our auto
mobiles came out after me and took
me back to our aerodrome. Most of
my squadron thought ! was lost
beyond a doubt and never expected
to see me again; but my friend, Paul
Raney. had held out that | was all
right. and as | was afterward told,
said, Don't send for another pilot:
that Irishman will be back, If he has
to walk" And he knew that the only
thing that kept me from walking
was the fact that our own autom obile
had been sent out to bring me home.
! had lots to think about that day,
and | had learned many things; one
was not to have too much confidence
in my own ability. One of the men in
the squadron told me that | had
better not take those chances; that
il was getting TO be a long war and
| WOulu nave plenty Oh opportunities
to he killed without deliberately
wishing them on myself. Later /
was TO learn the truth of his state
ment.
That night my 'flight'-each
squadron is divided into three flights,
consisting of six men each-got
ready to go out again. AS | started
to put on my tunic | noticed that |
was not marked up for duty as
usual.
| asked the commanding officer,
ina ior. what the reason for that was,
and he replied that he thought | had
done enough for one day. However,
| knew that if | did not go, someone
else from another flight" would
have to take my place, and | in
sisted upon going up with my patrol
as usual, and the major reluctantly
consented. Had he known what was
in store for me | am sure he wouldn't
have changed his mind so readily.
AS it was we had only five
machines for this patrol, anyway
because as we crossed the lines one
of them had to drop out on account
of motor trouble. Our patrol was up
at s p. NJ, and up to within ten
minutes of that hour it had been
entirely uneventful
At $50 p. NJ. however, while we
were flying at height of $1,000 feet
we observed three other English
machines which were about 1000