Evening star., 1942-06-20

(This Is the eighth of series
OF nine stories supplied to the As
sociated Press by the Chicago
Tribune, iDhose correspondent,
Stanley Johnston, tDds the only
American reporter aboard the
aircraft carrier Lexington In the
Coral Sea bdttleJ
BY STANLEY JOHNSTON,
Foreign Correspondent Of the Chicago
Tribune.
CHICAGO, June 20.-Reformed
and benevolent cannibals who speak
English, who feed and nurture
United States naval flyers and who
assist them to rejoin the fleet or to
reach Australian ports apparently
populate the archipelagos OF the
South Pacific Ocean.
Such are the reports-including
yarns to dim the adventures OF Swiss
Family Robinson and Robinson Cru
soe-that our air crews make when
they are rescued after having been
shot down or forced to alight on the
ocean among the islets of the Coral
Sea.
There were a number Of pilots
whose planes were damaged during
the heavy air fighting In the Coral
Sea when a two-carrier, sea-borne
American air force caught and de-
cisively defeated greatly superior
japanese forces. Almost to a man
these airmen were rescued, and in
several cases their planes were re-
covered intact.
These strange adventures include
those of the crew that prepared to
sell its life dearly when approached
on the Island of Rosseu-notoriously
the home Of cannibals-by skirted
natives with bone ornaments In ears
and noses and spears and stone axes
in their hands. AS the flyers made
ready to fight for their lives the ma
tives greeted them with the words:
Hello, airmen." Later the sup
posed cannibals provided the avia-
tors with comfortable lodgings and,
wonderful to relate. a late type Of
air chart of the southern Pacific
q Navy photographic ONCE publi-
cation.
Drifting Pilot Rescued.
Then there was the Arabian
Nights tale of the seaplane scout
pilot who missed his rendezvous
with the fleet and drifted in his
plane in the Gulf of Papua for
seven days. He was picked up by the
fleet at the end of that time when
navigators diverted the course of
the American task force toward the
spot where they had calculated he
would be blown by the winds.
The moral to all of the accounts
is, Of course:
THE Navy takes care of its men"
/ have known of instances In
which admirals ordered destroyers,
in time of war when a destroyer is
worth its weight in gold and when
its jobs always are double its ca
pacity, to travel a thousand miles
to pick up one pilot marooned on an
island beach.
ITS marvellous to see the way the
Navy worries about it's pilots and air
crews" I told Capt. Fred Sherman
(now rear admiraD one day aboard
the aircraft carrier Lexington which
he commanded.
Rescues Salvage Skill.
First and foremost" he replied,
they are our men. Second. their
flying skill is both our striking force
and our defense. We feel we should
do everything in our power to re-
cover them"
Probably the best and most de-
tailed story / got first hand was that
Of Ensign William I. MCGOWAN, who,
with his radioman and the crews of
four other seaplane fighters, spent
a full month on the formerly sinis-
ter Island of Rossel. His story was
told to me as I was bound toward
the United States with many others
OF the crew of the superb old Lex
ington, which was sunk on May 8
after a winning battle with the
Japs.
Ensign McGowan's story began
on March IL. Leaving his cruiser,
he and his radioman, Miller, COM
menced a lone patrol When they
arrived at the place on the ocean
where they had been scheduled to
meet the feet, it was not there.
They flew searching course, re-
turned to the rendezvous point, and
alighted. After tossing all night
with the craft and becoming sea-
sick while drifting, they took of
and few to Rossel.
"Rossel is the last island to the
east in the Louisaides," Ensign
MCGOWAN said.
Recalls Cannibal Tale.
"Its about 20 miles long by 10
wide I remember having read how
a Chief Mooyo once had ruled there.
A French ship bound from Hong
Kong to Sydney was wrecked on
the reefs bordering the island and
327 Chinese were left ashore by the
captain who sailed a small boat to
New Caledonia to bring assistance.
History relates that Mooyo put
the unfortunate Chinese on a sand
spit and provided them with water
and food-but he developed habit
of seizing two or three captives each
time he held feast for his tribes.
Those seized were killed and cooked
up into tasty long tom-the native
slang for human steaks. When the
captain got back with his assistance,
all but one of the Chinese had been
eaten.
ut was with this memory that 1
TAXED toward the shore line. We
beached the plane on a sand shoal
so yards of the beach when we saw
about 80 natives come dashing out
Of the brush. We had our auto
!,