Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-09-11
Back From the Wars
Veteran of 400 Combat Hours
Tells of Fear on Every FIiqht
Sergt. Logan Recalls
Attack in SoIomons
By Other U. S. Planes

You're not supposed to be scared.
You're a veteran with hundreds OF
hours of combat experience. You're
supposed to be hard-boiled and ready
for practically anything.
So when you go up at night in a
Flying Fortress and a knot sticks
IN your throat and you can hear
your heart pound just because you
know you're in enemy territory. it's
a little hard to understand You
shouldn't be scared You're a vet
eran, see? But you are scared. And
every shooting star looks like
tracer bullet and every cloud forma-
ton looks like pack of Zeros
headed right at you.
Sergt. John B. Logan knows that
feeling. He's a radioman and
gunner-or was-on BIZ. He
got back to his home at 1882 War
rem street NV. this week to spend
a 15-day furlough with his mother,
Mrs. Ellen Logan When the fur
Tough ends, Sergt. Logan will go to
Salt Lake City. Utah, to be re-
assigned. Chances are, he will be-
come an instructor Maybe that will
be the end of active fighting for
MIN.
400 Combat Hours.
Sergt. Logan has had about as
much war in one chunk as any
man can stand-17 months in fight
ing zones, "a combat missions, more
than 400 combat hours. He was in
the plane that dropped the first
2,000-pound eggs" on the Japanese.
He got in Or the tail end of the
battle Of Midway. He saw lot
of action on Guadalcanal.
During all that time, and for two
months before, his squadron never
lost plane or man in combat
flights. You can call it luck The
Army has other names-superb skill,
co.. ordination. teamwork. Only twice
in all of his 81 missions was Sergt.
Logan's plane hit. Neither time
was the damage serious.
Paradoxically, he said, the closest
shave his crew had was the night
their Identification signal went bad.
1--WE were out in the Solomons
that night" he recalled, dropping
flares over Tahiti. That meant we
were down pretty low and the Japs
were throwing lot of light stuff
up at us-20 and 40 millimeter. They
had 10 searchlights on us and we
were cruising around at three or
four thousand feet. Not a bad tar
get, but they never touched us.
Bombs Drop Around Us.
Then bombs began dropping
around us from above and we knew
our own planes were getting busy.
So we climbed away from there and
the searchlights went dead on the
ground. Our job was over and we
headed home. We're not supposed
to fly over certain area, but we
did First thing we knew, antiair-
craft gunners on the ground were
taking pot shots at us. We ducked
and got away
1--WE thought we were safe until
we got back to Guadalcanal One
of our own fighters came up to
meet us and tried to give us the
works. She made three passes at
us. We blinked our lights fran
tically, trying to signal to her We
did everything possible to get in
touch with the field Nothing hap
pened and we finally got down safely.
That was wien we discovered that
our radio signal had gone weak and
we weren't identifying ourselves
When Sergt. Logan landed on the
West Coast recently. he was awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross. Pre-
viously he had received the Air
Medal. Other members of his crew
and his squadron had been similarly
honored. During most of his COM
bat experience, he served as a cor
poral. Just before he was shipped
out of the South Pacific, the Army
made him sergeant.
Japs Strike Suddenly.
you never really get Used to the
raids" he said. There was he
time the Japs struck suddenly while
I was riding in the back of a truck
with an officer. The first bomb hit
before we knew there was a raid
on. The driver jumped out of the
truck, but we didn't know il. 1 dived
into corner of the truck and the
officer landed on top CT ME. The
truck finally rolled to a stop, and
we made for fox hole.
Funny thing about air lads