Evening star., 1942-06-25
Two Marines in Midway Battle Spend 40 Hours
Adrift on Liferoft Before Rescue by Plane

III D6IOI6 N6SCu
nursing the plane but finally got
her up near the clouds. Another
Zero got on our tail. While I was
changing ammunition, one Zero
streaked up, got tracer bullets into
our ship and then cut loose with
his 2O-millimeter cannon.
Hit in Leg and Arm.
Il was hit in the right leg. Then
machine gun bullets hit my left
arm, which began bleeding badly.
My Irish came to the surface and 1
/ finished loading the gun. gave the
Jap a long burst into the engine.
then another into the belly Of his
plane as he pulled away.
The slipstream was blowing
blood over my goggles so I could
hardly see. Capt Blain reached the
clouds and lost most of the Zeros
but one of them was pretty per-
sistent, probably feeling ashamed
| that eight of them couldn': get one
of us.
Il looked over our pane and saw
a hole in the stabilizer big enough
for a man to crawl through. Also
the motor was cutting out every few
minutes but still that Jap couldn't
get us. We finally lost him.
MY radio had been shot of, my
throat microphone, cockpit and in
struments we're shot up, with blood
all around Our wings looked like
a swiss cheese. I didn't have much
left to DO, so took over the wobble
pump, which kept sticking. had
to keep kicking it with my one good
foot and pumping with my one good
| hand.
Motor Finally Quit.
Finally the gasoline pressure
stopped and the motor quit. I pre-
pared for a crash landing, covering
my head with my good arm. We hit
the water in a crash which seemed
/ to last for five minutes. I saw spray
over and around me and thought
we were % feet under. But the
plane stopped and f1oated.
Il got out the life raft. Capt
Blain took the Very pistol. shells,
! flares and first-aid kit We had
talked it over before and each knew
what TO do. The raft was half de-
flated due to open safety valves, but
it f1oated.
The plane sank quickly They
call those RATS two-men boats, but
if you ask me they're one midget
boats size. One side was about COL
lapsed with a bullet hole in the
waterline 1 was looking around and
figured there's gonna be just two
less marines in a few minutes
The sea was running in long
swells and both Capt. Blain and ]
began to get sea sick. We were
sick all the next three days and
two nights. In fact, had regular
competition in which honors were
about even. We were too sick even
to look at my wounds. fearing 1t
would make us even sicker.
The only thing we could keep on
our stomachs the whole time was
matted milk tablets. We each took
only two swallows of water until
rescued. The boat was leaking badly
so we had to give so strokes with the
pump every Is minutes. We tied
Capt. Blain's parachute to the raft
for sail so our bombers would spot
us but the parachute kept humping
the liferaft and the waves were COM
ing in. The quarters we're cramped
and my wounded arm was sore, al
though the leg did not hurt much.
Bird Lands on Captains Head.
Birds from Midway kept circling
us and a tern landed on Capt.
Blain's head We were rather
amused. The birds got some fish and
then headed back to good old dry
land. We sure envied them.
Planes were continually over
head and we kept a sharp watch
throughout the day and night. The
next morning we caught the atten-
ton of ply by waving Capt.
Blain's undershirt from the end of
paddle and firing our As. The
plane circled and signaled by blinker
that he would get help soon.
Two hours later another ply
came out but we had drifted and
they missed us by 10 or Is miles. We
could see them plainly circling over
where we should have been. Later in
the afternoon, we saw what seemed
like sticks (masts) on the horizon
They came closer and there were five
enemy warships headed west. We
stayed pretty low. We weren't feel
ing too hot as the ply had missed
us and we feared they had aban-
doned the search. After dark we saw
a submarine near and tried to signal
but the effort went unheeded.
The second night, after midnight
we heard one Of our Bits overhead
We lit a flare and 1t circled lower
until the flare went out. We held
the flare low so the pilot could rec
ognize us. We felt better then, Ag-
uring they would send out for us. At
5 am. a ply flew over within 8
miles of us. After hasty consultation
we decided to risk using our last
smoke signal. But the plane did
not see us and flew right over us and
went almost out of sight in cloud.
Then it suddenly circled and came
back. The tail gunner had seen our
smoke.
Meanwhile, I. don't mind saying
we had been cussing those airmen
pretty loudly. I dipped a flare re-
peatedly toward the water to in
crease the magnesium smoke to give
the ply pilot the winddrift. The
pilot made q wonderful landing in
those long swells and TAXED along