Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-10-21
American Engineers
Establish AirpIane
Hospital in India
Is Native Mud Villages
Transformed Into AirfieId
And Supply Depot

Transformed Into AirfieId
And Supply Depot
BY PRESTON GROVER,
wide World.
SOMEWHERE IN CENTRAL
INDIA, Oct. 21-Three months age
this was just another piece OF India
sleeping in the sun, complete with
cobras, big pythons and ancient
ruins.
Now It's base hospital for
wounded airplanes.
Here on q nat plain screened by
rows OF trees on all sides, 4 band
OF American Army engineers and
technicians Of the Air Service Com
mand have laid out a repair and
supply depot that is putting new
life into bombers and fighters, as
well as the equally vital ferry
planes taking munitions to China.
This Is a sample OF how 1900
khaki-clad Americans made a COM
bination airfield and supply depot
out Of 10 native mud villages, rock
from centuries-old walls and little
else:
Building Evacuated by British.
On June 30-the British evacuated
barracks building to give American
mechanics temporary workshop.
On July while beds still stood
In rows in one end of the building
a big Wright whirlwind motor
was being torn down in the other
end for basic overhauling.
The American mechanics didn't
await the installation of fancy ma
chinery which still was in packing
cases. Overhauling and setting up
machinery went along together.
The airfield and depot is the size
OF \ small city-2z miles long, IN
miles wide.
Diagonally across section of it
. stone-based runway is being built
capable Of handling the biggest
planes with the fullest loads.
The total ultimate capacity Of
the depot in terms of planes re-
built and air forces supplied can
not be disclosed-but it will be ad-
equate, with its subordinate fields,
to sustain a "big-time show"
Not Exclusively for Americans.
It isn't exclusively for Americans.
1t will service all types Of American
planes brought in either by Amer
leans or British.
The only condition is that planes
must be badly damaged or otherwise
down at the heel. Only the worst
cases will be handled here. Minor
damages and secondary overhauls
will be handled at more advanced
bases.
We'll take them only when they
come in with their wings tapping"
says the depot commander, 1t. Col.
John L. M. Des Islets.
The colonel halls from Quebec,
but he has lived in so. many places
in the United States it Is hard to
say which is his home. His wife
and four children are at Patterson
Field, Dayton, Ohio, but he has
lived at Pittsburgh, Portland, Greg,
ana Berkeley, Calf.
A graduate of West Point In 1924,
he has trained cadets at Valley
Forge Military Academy in Penn
sylvania and helped build the Bon
neville Dam in Oregon.
Place Smacks Of Texas.
Unlike the colonel, however, most
OF the Air Service command here
comes from Texas The place smacks
Of San Antonio and Dallas. Take
Capt. Howard H. Lock, depot sup
ply of11cer. He's from Lockhart,
Tex, and his assistants, Its. Nor
man w. Craig and James L. Kerr,
are from San Antonio.
Their job is to feed supplies to
repair departments in the local depot
as well as to advance depots as far
away rs China.
They supply anything from =
brief case to a bomb door for a
Flying Fortress, and requests come
in on every sort OF paper from
scraps to regular forms.
In the United States in peacetime
such irregularity wouldn't 60, but
over here, the aim Is to keep sup
plies moving, and formality Is sec
ondary.
But they haven't yet found out
what an airline trained mechanic
wanted when he requested Mickey
Mouse with floating tube" The
mechanic Is in China, so they can't
telephone him for details, mean
time they are asking every former
airline employe coming through.
The point is that the civil airline
men use completely different lingo
from the Army-trained mechanics
to designate various parts of engines
and planes. Actually an interpreter
is needed to help them understand
each other. So the supply depot is
compiling dictionary with cross
references.
It hasn't been al beer and skittles
this shaping of the airfield and
depot. 1t was necessary, for instance,
to move the mud villages. One viii
lage mound accumulated through
generations will be scraped back into
lake formed wher villagers scooped
out mud a baSketfui at a time to
build huts.
Some prefabricated hangers from
America are now erected, but the
engineers have improvised plenty.
PhiIatelic note: The one stamp
always sure to be worth the price
paid is the War savings stamp. Buy
1t now.
| TIE hai' Ry~/
= G. 49, 11kk nj LAM