Evening star., 1942-12-20
We Prayed Huby for DeIveronce Says Capt. Rckenbocker
In Describing Thrills of Escape From Death in Pacific
Home Front Urged
To Produce More
To Aid Troops
Continued From First Page.)

we are indebted deeply to our own
Air Forces, to the Marines, and to
the boys of our Navy for our pres
ence here today, particularly the
Navy, which had the greater share
of the burden. They gave us their
energy unstintingly day and night
when we needed it SO badly. The
one unfortunate note is that we
couldn't bring them all back.
One young man, Sergt. Alexander
T. Kaczmarczyk, Polish boy, was
lost. I was fortunate to be able
to bring back Col. Hans Adamson.
1 brought him back on a hospital
bed. We brought back Sergt. James
w. Reynolds. radio operator, whom
we left in San Francisco in a hos
pital we'll along the way toward
recovery. That is his home and his
parents were there to meet him.
think he will be all right in a week
or two.
Col. Hans C. Adamson of Wash
ington is still quite a sick man be-
cause of the many things he went
through. Not only did he have a
very bad time during the 81 days,
but on arrival in the Samoans from
another member of a group of is
lands, he showed up a very bad
case of diabetes. At the time the
hospital did not have any insulin,
but there happened to be doctor
who came in that particular day
who was diabetic, with a personal
supply, and he saved the situation.
Col. AdamSon then unfortunately
developed pneumonia; we almost
lost him again. Then I started
West. During my absence of 10
days he developed lung trouble-an
absceSs on the lung-and he had to
be operated on. But on my return
he seemed to show improvement. 1t
was unbelievable. BY staying over a
couple of days more, I was able to,
happily so. load him on board the
ship and bring him through. He is
now in Walter Reed Hospital and in
good hands. I am certain that, be-
ing back in Washington among his
friends and family, within six weeks
or two months he will have recuper-
ated and become normal again.
There are lot of things l can't
tell you, as you gentlemen under
stand. They are of vital military
Importance, but will try and give
you as much of the story as 1 can
in detail, The simplest way I know
OF doing that is to tell you what
happened from the start.
We arrived in Hawaii by clipper.
We left that evening. We were
going to leave for our first destina-
ton, which was in the South Pacific,
at 1920 am. AS we were taking
of, the hydraulic system let go
on the left-hand brake and it looked
as II we were going to take down
all the hangers at Hickam Field.
They had to ground loop into the
runway. I was informed there was
another ship available and that by
switching the equipment, baggage
and mail, we would be ready to go,
and were, about 1:30 am. 1t was
a beautiful night. I went to bed
in the tail end of the Bit on a cot.
I awakened in the morning about
$50 and went into the cockpit.
Everything was serene The ship
was purring along beautifully and
we were due to land at this island
at $50. At 1920 we hadn't seen it.
In the meantime I was a little bit
worried; the navigator was worried,
and so was the pilot. I asked them
if they had called for bearings and
that was when We found we had
difficulty with our radio system.
Not only that-after double check
ing our compass we found the COM
pass had not been swung and that
the outfit was off several degrees,
which complicated our problem.
Tail Wind Exceeded
Expected 10-Mile Rate.
l felt and said at the time that
I thought we had overshot, because
I felt we had more of a tail wind
than the boys thought they had.
Mind you, there were no weather
stations like we have in this coun-
try, no teletype to get the weather
around: it is all based on long-range
forecast and isn't always as accu-
rate as it might be. I definitely feel
that this condition will be eliminated
and improved upon in the very near
future
I jumped ahead Of my story when
mentioned we had overShot. The
forecast showed 10-mile tail wind,
and later, as l was going into Aus
tralia it SO happened the navigator
OF the crew that was sent out from
the States to pick us up in the
Samoans happened to have gone out
that very night on Gen. Lewis plane
one hour before we went out.
Talking about getting lost. he said
they might have been lost if it had
not been for a certain amount of
chance. He said he went in there
that morning and proved it to be a
tail wind of about 80 knots per hour
instead of 10 miles per hour, which
verified my original suspicion that
we had overshot. When we called
for bearings the radio problem
showed up, and We didn't get
couldn't get them One of the sta
tions tried to give us what they
could and gave us a certain course
to follow, but we couldn't get the
cross-bearing on it so it didn't make
much difference. 1t wasn't worth a
great deal.
We kept flying and finally decided
to try the old box method of locating
something, looking for a ship. an
island. and under those conditions
you get out there what they call
island-eyes-you see land from many
different angles and it is nothing
more than cloud shadows. But when
you want to find land and anxious
to see it. you multiply it 10. fold
We had that problem, but time was
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