Evening star., 1942-11-05
70 Marines Rescued
From Hospital lime ]
- - d ;ys 81 81 "a
Forced Down on Reef
Navy Flyers Find croft
And Destroyer Saves
Group Periled in Storm
By the Associated Press.

Bs the Associated Press.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. S.-The
story Of how 20 American Marines,
sick. wounded and weary after weeks
OF battle on Guadalcanal, started
for temporary peace and safety only
to face and win . new struggle for
life was related today by = news
correspondent home from the South
Pacific. '@ 80 80
They were In bad shape, an, IN
they wouldn't have been leaving the
battle zone, but nonetheless they
managed to survive 10 days in .
wrecked Army transport plane,
awash on q shallow Pacific eatoll,
living on scant rations OF food and
water until United States naval sea-
planes and a destroyer teamed up
to take them OH.
Most Of them-perhaps all OF
them-will live, which the GORE
spondent, Columnist Bill Henry Of
the Los Angeles Times, accepts as .
tribute to the toughness and endur-
ance of American men and war
planes alike.
Forced Down on Atoll.
The men were sitting cases"
some of them wounded, some Ill,
some both, when they set out from
Guadalcalal October 10, Mr.. Henry
relates, in an Army Douglas trans
port. The plane was manned by 1t.
Cecil Petty, pilot; Eugene Ecklund,
co-pilot; Corpl. Larry ingalls,, ra-
dioman, and Corpl. Roy Meuret, en-
gineer. Those were all the names
the military authorities made public,
and they announced no addresses at
all.
They were bound for a hospital
somewhere in the Pacific, but few
hundred miles out from Guadal-
canal ran into bad weather which
forced a hasty revision of plans.
Pilot Petty decided he had theial-
tentative Of turning back to Guadal-
canal or seeking landing else
where out of the storms path.
A look at his gasoline gauge
furnished the answer-there wasn't
enough fuel to get back to Guadal-
canal. At this point 1t. Petty re-
called coral reef not too far away,
which he had noticed on his milk
run"-that's the prosaic name these
island to island journeys are called
by the men who make them.
Pilots Skill Praised.
1t. Petty headed for it. and soon
sighted the little atoll, a rocky bit
of coral which always was partial
ly awash. In maneuver described
by Mr.. Henry as combining almost
incredible skill and a lot of luck,
1t. Petty brought the big land plane
down in 3 feet of water, and it
skittered across the calm sea like
fiat rock hurled by a playful boy
No one was hurt in the landing,
but the radio was broken and the
crew set to work to repair it. Food
and water were rationed, and look
out posted atop the plane.
After long hours OF work the crew
got the radio into some kind OF
shape and began messaging their
position. Meantime, Of course, the
planes was reported missing and
hope for it had almost been aban-
doned, as by this time it was nearly
10 days overdue. ,
Supplies Dropped from Sky.
But message got through and
Mr.. Henry NkSsAt the field when it
was received. Swift land planes set
out, speedily found the disabled
transport and dropped food, water,
medicine One or two on the trans
port retained sufficient strength to
swim after the supplies.
The slower naval seaplanes came
soon afterward, but even then the
ordeal wasn't at an end. A storm
rose as the sick and wounded were
being transferred and the seaplanes
couldn't get off the water. The ar
rival of a United States destroyer
solved the new difficulty, however
and in few hours the Marines had
landed and hospital surgeons had
the situation in hand.