Nogales international., 1943-08-06
War Hero
CONTINUED from Page One)

Continued from Page One)
Honor among American war awards,
for having been on Flying Fort
ress above a Jap convoy off Lac
when three-inch anti-aircraft
shell came through the bomb bay
and started a fire so hot it burned
, the aluminium Skin like so much
paper.
! When that happened, Captain
Reeves left his co-pilot's seat, rush
ed back to the rear of the ship,
loaded himself and crew with flying
suits, ran back to the fire, packed
the suits down into the flames and
got busy with the fire eXtinguisher.
Meanwhile the ack-ack was burst
ing all around the plane, two men
in it were wounded, the whole
thing was hotter than blast fur
mace and the nearest island was 80
miles away. There we're IL or IS
Zeros making trouble, too, but
Reeves managed to put the fire cut.
Of all his experiences the men,
! Ory of those eight minutes in the
blazing plane above enemy guns
| is his most vivid-sO vivid he can
hardly talk of it even now.
! THE pilot and I agreed the best
thing to do was try to land in the
water before we exploded, he said.
I'VE couldn't jump-with those Japs
right below we'd have been dead
before we hit the ocean.
80 we we're slanting down to
make a water landing as far away
as possible, and I went back to try
to get the fire under control.
THE fire eXtinguishers wouldn't
touch it so I thought Of the flying
suits
That not only brought the fire
under control but put it out. They
flew the Fortress back to base, the
bombardier and navigator wounded
and Captain Reeves suffering from
bad burns.
It's been a long stretch across the
water for Captain Reeves.
{ J He flew his first combat mission
the day after the United States en-
tered the war. For a time he fought
with the famed 18th Bombardment
Group but when most of the 10Th
was sent home he stayed, and since
has been in action with four diff
ferent squadrons.
In Bismarck Battle
He was in the battle of the Bis
marck Sea, in which % Jap ships
were sunk by Allied planes, and his
Fortress was credited with num-
ber Of hits on enemy vessels.
He got his Purple Heart when he
was wounded in the army by Zero
machine gun fire while his bomber
flew with a group of dive-bombers
to attack a convoy, and waited
to lead the dive-bombers back to
their base. The Fortress was at
tackled repeatedly, set afire, one
lmotcr was shot out and the hy-
draulic system damaged-but they
got home. 1t was for that action,
too, that he won the Silver Star.
He has flown over Rabaul, the
Japs' big, gun-bristling base, and
his plane sank an enemy ship in the
harbor there.
He has been on As combat mis-
sions, has had close to 300 combat
hours.
Now for 80 days, at least-the
length Of his leave-he's out of ac-
ton for the first time in nearly two
years. It's pretty swell, all right,
but he's still thinking about New
Guinea.
We we're terribly outnumbered
most of the time he says. But
it's sure getting better. 1t was look
ing good over there when I left
everybody was in fine spirits and
we were getting lots of help"
The captain brought back as
souvenirs of the war in the South
Pacific photographs of everything
from New Guinea bellies to re-
markable aerial shot of Zero
taken from bomber which was
being attacked by the Jap fighter.
Former Teacher
Captain Reeves, graduate of the
teachers college at Flagstaff, and
the Elgin grammar school and
Patagonia high school, was teaching
at Bowie. AriZ.. when he went to