The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-03-31
CHAPTER v

j also nearQ ABOUT Lne WuOppnlS OA8
target he'd hit and sunk. But !
didn't think much of this at the time,
and I don't think Colin did either.
eff know the boy, and ! think l
do, after he saw his oxygen system
was on fire, and had given orders
for the other guys to jump, and was
sitting there hanging back on his
stick and fighting his rudder in order
to give them a chance to do it, he
wasn't thinking about how many
gross tons that Japanese ship dis
placed, but about his parents and
Marian and little Corkie. And later
when he was trying to crawl out OF
the upper escape hatch before his
clothes caught on fire, it was the
same, and still later, when he cleared
the hatch but saw the ground coming
up at him, too close and too fast for
his chute ever to have chance to
crack open, I don't think he was
worrying about how big his post
humous medal was going to be, but
only worrying about Marian and
Corkie.
"a little later in the afternoon one
OF our fighters came in and began
to circle the field, huttering like a
wounded bird. I could see it was
something serious - guessed even
then an aileron might be shot away,
so I gave him the green light to
come in and land. He began to
IT axe passes at the field, cutting his
throttle to pick out the strip Of
straight sand through the bomb era
tiers, marked by maze Of red flags
we'd put up. But each time he'd
throttle back his left wing would
drop and he'd have to gun her again,
making a slow climbing circle up
off the field.
''It began to get me. Come on,
son, come on, put it down, before
we get into trouble On the last trial
he gunned it, came around, and then
tried to pull up straight, but too late.
Teetering down the field, he caught
one wing on one Of our slightly
damaged Fortresses, tearing it off,
and then himself cartwheeled off into
the trees-killing a sergeant who had
been working on a plane back there.
The pilot wasn't hurt much himself,
but one more Of our precious few
P-40's was gone.
''But, following orders, I was still
giving the Fortresses the red light
to stay in the air, and I began to
worry about this. Maybe orders
had been issued to bring them in.
but someone had failed to notify
me. Some Of them would circle for
a while, and then would head on
back for Del Monte, more than six
hundred miles away, while they still
had enough gas to get there.
FINALLY old Jim Connally said
the hell with it, and came on in
without my giving him any light at
all. He needed more gas to get
back to Mindanao and couldn't perch
up there all day, and little after
this the Colonel said could give the
others the green light to come in
and gas up, although any hour, any
minute, we were expecting the Japs
back. He wanted to save those re-
manning Forts at any cost.
1--WE got out Of bed just as dawn
was breaking and, folding our sheets
inside our brown blankets SO no
white would show, stuffed them I'M
der the khaki cots-we didn't want
anything that would indicate on
Jap rocco picture that we were now
sleeping in that field. The Japs were
reccoing the hell out Of the place
with high-altitude cameras, two or
three times daily.
81 spent the next day in the tower
and it was much like the first, ex-
cept it was palmer and palmer that
we would have to abandon Clark.
$50 the next morning the evacu-
alton began. They gave me one Of
the planes they had patched up, and
AL Mueller and ! made two trips
back and forth to Del Monte loaded
down with members Of the ground
crews who were to service our planes
at Del Monte.
s'I'n never forget my last trip
out. It was at night OF course-it
wasn't safe to leave a plane on
the ground by day at Clark any
more. We were taking of at three
in the morning in order to be through
the danger zone by dawn, and I'd
had almost no sleep at all. But
while they were warming the mo-
tors they came running to me with
the news that there was a pretty
bad leak In my fuel line. So what
in hell to do? I could wait while
they ripped fuel line from one of
the semiwrecked Forts standing
around on the field, and installed it
in mine. But by then it would be
well after dawn, and If we encoun-
tered Jap fighters, there I'd be,
with sergeants stuffed into every
corner of the plane, so that we
wouldn't have room to swivel q ma
chine gun in our own defense,
1Or we could tape up our leaky
line, get the he'll out Of there in
! ir'sar usst