Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-26
Gets n Balloon

1t was as big q surprise 10 me Us II
will be 20 you. l finally got one.
No. not Boche-a balloon, and on
Sunday at that. 1 can see you hold
your hands up in horror, but If you
could have heard the racket the
Boche made over that one measly
balloon you would hold them up
some more. Many prayer was dis
turbed that day, l fear. by my nm
heralded appearance from a Dig
black cloud over that balloon.
You remember l wrote about at
tacking two in the same day in
former letter and how disappointed
I was that they did not burn. Well,
two days later information arrived
that the second one 1 had attacked
burned which is a mighty long time
for even a "kultured" balloon to
burn. as one pilot jokingly put 1t.
But what makes me so sore is that
1 had not the pleasure of seeing
the bonfire, for l came back and re-
ported no result except that the OBJ
server jumped, which accounts for
the delay in receiving confirmation.
Plenty of Fireworks
Considering what they were
chucking at me, shrapnel. flaming
onions. machine-gun bullets and
every other kind of fireworks the
can only he described as Hell with
the lid off," you can we'll believe l
was quite busy enough in front with
out looking behind to see whether
some belared ball had taken effect.
I only got two bullets in my plane
too. which should prove how success
full L was in putting the "lid" back
on again.
1t is not boasting when I say 1
deserved TO get that balloon for you
have seen by my letters how often 1
tried to knock something 'kultured"
out of the sky-and failed. Twice
l attacked balloons with no other
result except punctured plane, not
that l minded this souvenir ventilat-
ing, but 1 did want to get a run for
my money, and it seemed the Huns
were having all the fun. At least,
they certainly helped me TO run.
Hard to Get Balloons
You may wonder where the ntr-
tive was in making myself a target
SO often, so I'll tell you. OF course,
there was Il reason, for attacking bal
looms is purely voluntary work. and
since one must go rather close TO
the. ground in attacking it is not
what you might call a soft job, as
many machine-guns as we'll as
shrapnel and onion guns are placed
in commanding positions to protect
them.
Then there is the greatest danger,
that of YOUR motor going bad-sev-
eral bullets could easily put it out
of commission-and when one is al
400 meters he can't glide far with
dead motor. Yes ma'am, landing in
Germany strikes me as the greatest
danger-just think of spending the
-
ingO in 4 German prison.
Did You Get Your Hun Yet?"
Now for the reason of all my sud
den activity.
One day n girl wrote that she
had read of Putnam and was watch
ing the paper every day to see my
name appear for like reasons. The
same day two letters came from
home in which Donald, with his
youthful brotherly freedom wanted
to know why il was that Putnam
got so many Boches and I got none,
and then Dad chips in his little bit
and hopes I'll get my Hun before
write again." BY this time my
crouch against the Hun had risen to
the Goth power and was still going
up. Besides, every time I met an
American he wanted to know If L
had my Hun yet?
1t seems-to be slogan among
the Americans, that expression:
Have you got your Hun yet" And
all l could say was mot yet'. L
felt disgraced everytime l answered
that way, Notwithstanding the fact
that there are many, many pilots
in the same boat.
Wants Balloon Gun
Then came another letter telling
about the reflected glory I was get
ting from being Putnam's roommate.
That was the last straw. for if there
is anything l detest it is reflected
glory, and right then I decided to
ask for a balloon gun. If l couldn't
hit Boche 1 could hit balloon.
This is n special gun which shoots
a ball somewhat larger than the
usual machine-gun. Being an in
cendiary bullet you can see why il is
used on balloons. My commander
had not lost his faith in the Ameri-
cans fighting qualities and gladly
gave me the gun. And from then
on. as one of my American COM
rades put it. II began to run wild"
Plane Shot Up
There was some foundation for the
remark judging from the results TO
my plane. In fight with a biplane
my plane was shot up so bad the
upper wing had to be changed.
The next day 1 jumped on a bal
loon, and came home with. six more
holes in my plane. Two days later