Evening star., 1943-05-03
By IRA WOLFERT.

bottom wide open.
The rim of the boat kept afloat
and the three young men sat on the
rim, their feet in the water. They
had no food and no water and moth
ing at all to substitute or keep the
sun off to make life consist of any
thing but sitting up straight with
feet in the water. Everything they
had taken along had gone down with
the bottom of the beat and that
crazy flare. If they wanted to sleep,
they had to sleep in the water with
one arm clutching the raft.
This kept on for two days. The
sun was very hot in the daytime
and the wind was chilly raw at
night. They could see land far off
every once in while. That was the
worst of 1t. The current there car
ried them in a big ellipse, swinging
them along the shore and close to it,
then out to sea, then back to shore.
Bradley Decides to Swim.
After two days of it, Bradley said
he was going to swim. "At least" he
declared, you have a chance that
way. This way, We'll be riding
around on merry-go-round until
we're skeletons. Then our skeletons
will be riding around on the merry
go-round."
BY that time Thurman and Robak
were too weak to argue with him.
Bradley went over the side. Keep
your chins up," he said. "Ill send
help and case of ice cold beer"
Bradley swan across the current
For long time he couldn't get very
far. He used up the best of his
strength and still was close enough
to the boat to hear the queer suck
ing noises the water made as it
splashed against it. But he kept
on He figured he might just as
we'll die fast in the water as take
the long way around by staying in
the boat
Then the boat kept getting farther
and farther away and Bradley
thought he had won. He was gain
ing ground. he thought. But the
shore didn't come any closer and
finally Bradley figured it out, that
the boat had come to the end of the
ellipse and was swinging around the
corner of it now and going out to
sea. Bradley wasn't gaining, but at
least he wasn't losing.
There were plenty of fish in the
water, strangely-shaped creatures
with colors like pretty parasol
After while Bradley was alone
with them in the silent sea. He
swan until he was tired. Then he
fioated. After floating little bit,
he started swimming again until
he was tired again. He was afraid
to float very long, because every
time he floated the current got hold
of him and he lost ground. But he
got tired more and more easily and
had to float longer and longer.
Finally Luck Turns.
1t was hard to keep from getting
desperate. He knew If he got des-
perate. he'd sprint and then all his
strength would go out that way and
he'd be helpless He swan steadily.
His arms seemed to weigh tons and,
when he kicked his legs, the pain
of doing so travelled all the way up
to him into his head, and there was
real pain in moving his arms.
After eight hours of that, he
tainted, from pain and weakness and
drifted like a corpse in the sea.
Then a miracle happened to him.
He had got past the ellipse into a
new kind of current and this current
carried him along over the coral
reefs and washed him slowly onto
the shore.
Natives found him there. His
body was mass of pain. Where
it had not been burned into blisters
by the salt water, it was cut by
coral. The natives were very puzzled
that he was still alive.
When Bradley told about the boat
caught in the ellipse, the natives put
out after 1t in canoes. But they
couldn't find it and nobody ever did
find the boat again or Thurman or
Robak.
- SWede got the news the next day
and climbed out Of bed. Il want to
60 back up there, sir" he told Ad-
miral Fitch. commander of air in
the South Pacific, "and put some
planes together and do some
damage"
He and Ernest flew back to Quad
alcanal together, 600 miles by dead
reckoning because they couldn't
wait for navigator. Swede always
flew with Earnest, the veteran of
Midway, when he could. Earnest
was rock steady in formation.
They hit Guadalcanal on the nose.
1t seems to have been quite thing
to do Two more planes tried it
the next day and got lost and had
to sit down in the water. After that
Admiral Fitch stopped that kind of
business, rush or no rush.
Days of Pitched Battle.
On October 8 Swede, Harwood,
Evarts and Earnest bombed Japs on
Guadalcanal and then hurried back
to Henderson Field to be fitted with
torpedoes. A Jap heavy cruiser and
six or seven destroyers were coming
down the groove, with plenty Of Jap
planes buzzing over them.
The marines had taken a beau
tiful Samurai sword from a dead
Jap officer the day before and Mai.
Gen. Vandergrift came over to the
airf1eld with it and put it into the
operations tent. The man who
hits that cruiser gets that sword
he said.
Larsen, Earnest, Mears and Katz
went up the groove on that mission.
Roy Simpler's Nt. Comdr. Roy c.
SimpleD Navy fighters were along
and so were Jimmy Smiths marine
fighters.
The Japs were playing it smart
that day. The cruiser was in the
middle and the destroyers formed an
inverted U around It. It WAS like n