Evening star., 1942-12-20

less they are, no matter how you may
have cherished them
We put our water and rations in
the radio compartments; the mat
tresseS we put up against the wall
to cushion the shock, and through
expert plotting on the part of Capt.
William T. Cherry, plus lot of good
luck, we went into trough and
landed up against the big swell. We
might have been SO unfortunate as
to have hit the top of the swell and
we would have gone on down.
Col AdamSon got sprained back
out of it; the radio operator got a
badly bumped nose. There were
five of us in the radio compartment
and when we hit we didn't skid very
far as you can appreciate. 1t was
rather sudden and none too COM
Portable a shock and portion of
our radio. which was on the wall
in the tail end, let go and came
up and broke down the door into
! the compartment and that upset
things, with Col. Adamsons sprained
back and the fact that when the
| boat on my side was kicked out the
raft got tangled in the ropes.
I can say frankly that all OF us
We're so anxious to get away from
the ship before she sank we didn't
! pay much attention to our rations.
We had no water when he went off
and we had no food. We saved
four oranges, and they were scrawny
ones at that, which we lived on for
eight days. I carved up these
oranges into eight pieces and ra-
toned them out, and if you ever
had seven hungry pairs of eyes
watching you carve. you prove to
be pretty good carver. even though
you haven't got the facilities the
parts we're pretty well balanced.
Unfortunately, the little boat. the
| tWo-man boat upset, and this boy
we lost went overheard He swal-
, lowed some salt water and was vio-
lently seasick for several hours.
which didn't contribute to reducing
his thirst any: it multiplied it.
Several of us were feeling none too
good because it was rough. The
boy got to drinking salt water dur
ing the night, unknown to us. and
between salt water poisoning and
starvation. we lost him on the night
of the 18th.
Eddie's 10-Year- Old Hat
Proves Valuable.
had taken piece of rope out
of the ship and we tied the boats
together about 20 feet apart. We
put Capt. Cherry and the co-pilot,
Second 1t. James C. Whitaker, and
the radio operator in the front one,
Col. Adamson and the little en-
gineer, Pvt. John F.. Bartek, an
myself in the middle, and the navi-
gator and crew chief, Sergt. Kacz-
marczyk, in the other.
After we got going naturally we
got to thinking about our food and
water, but we didn't dare 60 back to
the ship for fear she would sink
and suck us down with it. Then we
ran into five day calm, which left
the ocean like a mirror. 1t was
beastly hot. Most OF the boys had
thrown of their shoes and some
their socks, and that was unfortu-
nate. They felt they might have
to swim, but it turned out they had
their feet and legs burned very
badly. Two or three OF them had
nothing but a jumper on, no hats.
was more fortunate. I had
pair of high-top shoes on on account
Of my bum foot and an old felt
hat that Mrs. Rickenbacker had
been trying to get me to get rid of
Tor the last 10 years. 1t proved to
be very valuable I filled it with
salt water and put it down before
my eyes. I had grabbed three or
four handkerchiefs and we passed
those around and put around our
nose and face, bandit fashion, which
helped, but it was very hard on
our hands and face, and feet, par
ticularly.
We had no rain until the eighth
night. We saw nothing in the way
of searching planes or ships. The
little boy in my boat had an issue
Bible IN the pocket Of his jumper,
and the second day out we organized
little prayer meetings in the evening"
and morning and took turn about
reading passages from the Bible, and
frankly and humbly we prayed for
our deliverance. After the oranges
were gone there showed up terrific