Evening star., 1942-09-28
81 Days Adrht on an 8x4 Raft on the Pacific
A Routine Flight
Ends in Disaster
As Plane Is Lost

dDtdtion ordnance man - iCds
forced to land scout bomber in
the ocean tChen its gas gaDe out
on the eDentng OF January IS,
1912. The craft sank almost i'm
nedidtely, but they managed to
escape on an Sr4 foot rubber raft.
They aDere Without provisions
and Nth scdnt equipment Yet
this heroic United States Nauy
trio managed to SurUiue, battling
an Inferno OF seas and tUeather
for 81 days oUer course that
coDered about a thousand miles
until they finally reached safety
on an obscure dtoH. The nerDe-
ttnoling details OF this etrrdordi-
nary experience are being related
CHAPTER TWO.
Sometimes on our long. brooding
watches, when we skidded south
ward in following sea. remem-
bered my last meal on the carrier
There was the usual chaff in the
chief petty officers mess, but I,
Harold p. Dixon, aviation chief
machinist's mate in the United
States Navy, ate mostly in silence.
Our II O'Clock chow that was, and
in three hours I was taking up
small bomber in the routine scout
ing. rose and turned to go to the
ready room, where the pilots get
their wind data and plot their navi-
cation. Then I stopped at the door,
turned and looked back at the table.
We had had celery that Gay. Most
men preferred the tender celery
hearts, but 1 have always liked the
hard outer stalks. Without think
ing of anything in particular
walked back to the table, took two
more stalks OF celery and ate them
slowly AS 1 reflected on this later
it seemed to me that I was under
some compulsion to stoke my body
for an ordeal to come. I have
thought many times that this was
a strange and fortunate thing I did,
meal for "a days. l had occasion to
wish that my premonition, if
premonition it was, had gone a
little further and made me take an
extra swallow of water.
Going past the sick bay I was
stopped by first-class pharmacists |
mate.
Want to see something?" he
asked me.
YES" I said.
He said, Il have a friend of yours
in here" and opened the door.
I looked in and there was this |
fellow lying fat on his back in bed.
His arms and legs were waving back
and forth in the air and he was
talking to himself.
This man was very good friend |
Of mine. He had very dangerous
job on the ship and he and l dis |
cussed several times his chances of
getting hurt. In fact we had been |
talking about this a day or two
previous. He told me what he was
going to do in case certain wire
broke. And by golly this particular
morning something did happen-I
don't know why-and he got his
head cracked very hard on the land
ing.
He was just standing at his place |
and whether this wire broke or not |
] never found out, but anyway his |
skull was crushed very badly.
I had that funny lift in my stom-
ach. I had feeling that something
was going to happen.
The doctors were there, trying to |
give him an examination. He was |
babbling. You couldn't make out his
words, his voice just went on and
on, rising sharply and then falling
to a whisper.
1 said to the first-class phar-
n1acist's mate
Think he will live?"
The pharmacists mate didn't say
what he thought. He just shook
his head.
That funny feeling came again. I
thought to myself: I'm going to be in
exactly that same position. I could
see myself lying fiat on my back
with my legs in the air.
Then the thought came to me:
This fellow is suffering by the way
he is groaning, mentally there is
something very badly wrong with
him and his subconscious mind
knows that.
I thought: I'm going to do ali my
suffering before my mind goes out,
and that will be the climax.
My wife and believe in spiritual
ism-we're very ardent spiritualists.
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