Evening star., 1942-06-04
BY CHANDLER DIEHL.
vida Worid


PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, June
A story Of six days battling
against dense jungle. a forest IRE,
incessant thirst and mounting hun
ger-a successful escape-was re-
lated for the first time yesterday
by q young pilot.
Capt. Edward J. Potter, 26, OF
Houston, Tex, was the leader Of q
flight Of 10 United States training
planes en- route from Carapito, Ven
exuela, to Georgetown, British
Guiana, on April IL. when q tropical
storm swept savagely over the area
and dictated an emergency landing
Observation OF the immediate
area disclosed only two possible
landing places reed-covered area
in q jungle clearing about so miles
from the Venezuelan coast, and q
small strip Of sand beach on the
coastline.
The flight leader tested the first
landing, in the clearing. while hii
flight circled waiting, and found the
reeds . treacherous covering for q
mud-crusted swamp that pulled at
the planes wheels and nosed II
over.
Capt. Potter dug his way from
his almost buried plane and ordered
1t. Neil Lamont, "A, OF New Orleans
to take the flight back to the coast
where eventually eight of the nine
planes were grounded successfully
in the soft sand of q beach offering
scarcely room enough for three
planes. The ninth plane crashed on
landing, with fatal injuries to the
pilot.
Surveyed Trackless jungle.
Meanwhile, Capt. Potter and his
radio mechanic, Corpl. Wardy M
Cline, rs, OF Pinesville, w. Va, sur
veyed the trackless jungle from
which they were to emerge six days
later, exhausted, clothing .tattered
cut from head to foot by vicious
thorns and heavy brush. but smiling
through their bushy boards.
The first day was spent in get
ting our bearings and doctoring our
wounds" Capt. Potter related. The
sun broke out of the clouds and
the jungle began to steam. We
looked for water most of the after
noon without luck. We decided
to remain with the plane until
the next morning when we would
head for the coast.
Sleeping wasn't very successful
The mosquitoes and insects were
thick. We got only about seven
hours sleep in the six days, In fact.
The next morning. Monday. Apri
Is. the airmen had q taste of water
but only q taste.
I'VE had spread out tarpaulir
the night before" Capt. Potter ex-
planned, "and 1t picked up a little
rain and dew. This water, perhap:
a half a cup, was bitter from some
thing on the tarpaulin, but 1t tasted
good.
One Of the parachutes had beer
pulled open accidentally so we made
an arrow of it, pointing in the
direction we were going to walk
We took some clothes, our hfebelts
our jungle kit, Very pistol anc
my AS pistol. q compass, and CDn'
carried his Bible.
100 Yards in Three Hours
I'VE found we could hack oul
way forward into the heavy jungle
only about 100 yards for every
three hours Of hard work with tht
short jungle knife we had.
I'VE discovered a tropical plan
that seemed to catch little watel
in the joints where branches ex.
tended from the trunks. Almost
always there were tarantulas ir
these tiny water pockets, but we
drove them away and used tn.
mouthpieces from our lfebelts to
suck up this bit of water.
by nightfall we dropped in our
tracks.
Tuesday we headed north again
hoping to hit a river that would
lead us to the coast. We were
bothered terribly by flies and mos
quitos.
Cline and I began to hunt for
food. We even tried to find birds
in the heavy jungle. which was be-
coming almost impossible. We found
leaves with dew on them, and licked
them to try to hold on our painful
thirst.
I'VE realized in the middle of the
day We were not making enough