Evening star., 1941-09-20
Floating Air Base
Serves Navy Bomber
Crews Like City
But Coming Down to
Earth Again Is
High in Adventure
Last OF q SerteS.)
By MORGAN Nj. BEATTY,

BY MORGAN M. BEATTY,
Associated Press Feature Service Writer.
ABOARD U. S. NAVY PATROL
BOMBER OVER THE ATLANTIC.
-WhitecapS are pretty from the
air, but they're just plain brutal
when you land in them in the
North Atlantic at this time of year.
It's risky for the plane. the crew
and the boatmen who take their
lives in their hands TO come out
and get us, but the Nays got job
TO do and it's doing it, short of un-
duly risking men and material.
Today the whitecaps are unusu-
ally high. You don't know it from
the air, but when you come down
you bounce off 4-footer and leap
many feet into the air. The darn
things fall out from under you,
too. The shock puts accordion pleats
in your spine, but somehow you
emerge whole.
Await New Air Base.
The floating base is always anxious
during a landing-anXious for all
the crews required to moor a plane
safety. The crews will be glad this
winter when that S28,000,000 Argen-
tina air base in Newfoundland is
completed Planes can be handled
there with much more ease and
safety.
Everybody admires these stout
! fellows who come out to get us.
They drive their whaleboats through
| the spray, unconcernedly risk arms
and legs to get you of your boat.
Minor accidents are not unusual.
For instance, when We took off a
big roller pitched a whaleboat up
against the underside of a wing,
ripped big tear.
Our floating base is ready for all
| that. Like the planes armament,
the technical equipment is secret,
but it can be told that a tear in
the wing is only few minutes
work for the monster of the sea
we call an airplane tender or float
ing air base. They simply hoist the
craft aboard and do the work. The
tender is a cool s9l.OOOOOO worth of
the machinery required to keep a
24-plane squadron flying What she
| can't do for an ailing seaman just
! can't be done anywhere.
Neatness and Dispatch.
The operating room is a surgeons
paradise. 1t may not be as dainty
as Bellevue, but it's every bit as san
itary and effective. Dentists, bar
bers-every kind of service a sailor
can get ashore he can get there.
And when a plane is hoisted
aboard for attention they work
about as fast as your small son
with a toy plane. The ship is
rolled into a giant hangar, where
the mecks prescribe for her ills. If
the motor is not working right they
pull the thing out, put in another
one quicker than you'd dream it's
possible.
The emergency equipment is al
most unbelievable. If fog closes in
on patrol and they can't see to
land, boats put out to clear water,
give them a landing beam and
bring EN- in right side up.
AS we descend with benefit of
sun from our 10-hour flight toward
Iceland, our floating air base, an
chored somewhere in the North
Atlantic off the American shore"
looks like an old homestead.
Drawing Room Conversation.
Now the boat puts out from the
tender, then another. We aren't
the only patrol in this mans ocean,
it seems. The boat shoots up noun
tains of spray, and it's leap for
life like in the old movie serials to
get aboard. But the tricks done, and
in few minutes we're alongside the
tender.
After our shower and a change
of clothes, we go after that dinner
we've been wanting ever since lunch.
But it's no harum-scarum affair
dinner aboard floating naval city's
wardroom. The officers are required
to wear ordinary dress uniforms,
with coats. They gather around,
discuss the movie of tonight, the
days work. Banter is light-heart-
ed, keen.
All this is another shock to an
outlander. Down from a long pa
troll over ocean wastes to a draw
ing room conversation with remark
ably courteous gentlemen is pref
ty big adjustment, but it's everyday
business for these fellows.
Tomorrow some of them are 60
ing to get up at an odd hour as we
did today They will trek up to
the operations officers cabin for
conference. He'll sit at his desk,
give them last-minute orders.
They will nod, pick up their gear
and leap aboard bobbing boat for
another foray into the Atlantic,