Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-08-06
W.N.u.F FEATURES

too risky. But Soriano said as long
as I was here, maybe we could 60
over to the Presidents home-it was
about forty-five kilometers away
and he might change his mind. We
went ripping over there in Sariano's
car at sixty miles an hour. Quezon
was up, dressed, and considerably
interested. He listened to us, looked
me over very carefully-I had
long black beard then, which must
have been quite impressive-and
finally said he'd 60. (Later on when
he saw me in Melbourne, shaved, he
said he'd never disregarded VAIN
wright's orders if he'd known he
was riding with mere child of
thirty.) Anyway, Quezon and his
family were loaded into cars and
we were off.
meanwhile I'd left Akers on pa
troll outside the harbor. If Jap
destroyer came nosing around, I
didn't want him to cut off our re-
treat and figured Akers could ham
die him.
II was riding back and forth,
about two miles offshore in my IS
boat" said Akers, keeping my eye
balls peeled for any of these seven
Jap destroyers, when all of a sud-
| den there was thud and a splinter
| ing noise-we had crashed into a
| submerged object, raft with metal
on it apparently, which ripped
twenty-foot strip out of our bow.
Water came pouring in, and we got
busy with buckets and pump"
and kept right on with your
| patrol -" said Buckley - (Which
| took plenty of CUTS"
"The water kept gaining on us,
but we thought we could hold it
until Buckley got back with Que
zon to the pier, although l knew we
could never get her back to Minda-
mao in that condition When I saw
the lights of the car I figured it
was safe to come into the harbor.
She was sinking fast then, so we
left her in place where she would
drift on the sand and in the morn
ing the army could salvage her ma
chine guns. Then we all climbed
aboard the Al boat with Bulkeley
and the Quezon party. You might
say that was the end of the IS boat,
and yet it wasn't quite, although
she fought her last fight. Buckley
was working frantically to keep the
squadron together. A few days lat
er he came over, plugged the hole
temporarily, and lowed her back to
Cebu, where we hoisted her on the
marine railway for repairs. We
burned her just before the Japs
came into the town."
1.-THE trip back with Quezon was
as rough as I'll ever see," said
Buckley. "We left at three o'clock
with one hundred twenty miles to
60 before dawn. At four o'clock a
big sea landed us a punch in the
jaw which knocked two torpedoes
loose in their tubes and instantly
they started a hot run-a terrific
kissing of compressed air, the pro-
pellers grinding, it sounded like the
end of the world.
SIN a situation like that" said
Buckley. 1.-THE logical thing is to
get them out by firing an impulse
charge-touch off some black pow
der in the rear of the tube which
sends them scooting. But we were
having trouble with the mechanism
it took minute to get this done,
and meantime the two aft torpedoes
were sticking out of the tubes so far
they seemed about to fall, so the two
torpedomen, Houlhan and Light, got
out on them with their feet, hang
ing on by their hands to the for
ward tubes, and tried to kick them
loose. They couldn't, but they GER
tainly impressed President Quezon,
who, when he got to Australia, gave
them the Distinguished Conduct Star
of the Philippines for what they did
that night, as well as to Ensign
Cox and me. And it was a ticklish
job for the torpedomen too. Before
we blew the torpedoes out, their
back ends, where their motors are.
turned pink and then bright red
from the heat. On a normal run,
of course, the surrounding water
keeps them cool. But out of the
water, they're not nice things to
crawl around on.
cat first President Quezon didn't
| ulloSl "ildl VIC 6OlllS oll, dllO
asked why we were getting ready
to fire the two torpedoes. Not want
ing to worry him unnecessarily, l
said we were just firing them at the
enemy, who was near by. When we
got him ashore at Oroquieta, I ex.
planned that we'd really been in
quite a dangerous situation.
eve found passage through the
coral reef outside Oroquieta just
at dawn and found General Sharp
waiting in his car. In order not to
be recognized, Quezon tied a red
bandanna over his face below his
eyes. But the natives all knew him
in spite of that's were waving
from the sidewalk as he rode off
down the street"
eve missed it ALL" said Kelly,
because we were up there in Ana
ken trying to repair the crumpled
steel in our hind end at that little
oversize garage back among the
bamboo which thew called a ma.