The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-08-03
W.N.u.FEATupEs

the putting greens, and wonder why
they weren't In uniform. Only that
was the wrong attitude; they'd tell
you we need recreation now, more
than ever, to keep our morale up
during the war. I suppose it was
true, but I kept wishing the weary
boys in uniform I knew could be
getting more of it, instead of these
stagnant, contented men.
Their morale was fine, and was
trying to write to Tex's mother, and
to Marian, and to Willow Mcintyre,
whose husband Pat, one Of the finest
of our Air Force, died in Australia,
and to Becky Gibbs, and Frannie
Cooke, and Pat Webb. The Webbs
lived near us in Albuquerque and he
was killed in Australia, where he'd
done wonderful job, but somehow
never got mentioned, like so many
others. They'd been high-school
sweethearts and she'd spent three
years nursing and one year in prac-
tice to fill in the four years of
waiting. wanted to write to lot
of Navy wives we knew-to so many
girls, still so young, who were now
trying to pull themselves together
and make new lives, without ever
forgetting what swell boys they had
been married to. They knew better
than / that this hero business and
all its tingling medals is only years
of hard work, plus the fact that bit
of shrapnel didn't tear through the
bomber skin and kill. / wanted to
write them something, too, about
what a really fine country this was,
and how much it was worth dying
for, but somehow here where they
all thought the war was so exciting,
inspiration ran a little thin. And a
lot of those letters didn't get writ
ten."
"There were some more names to
be added to that list of letters" said
Frank, 'but with us the feeling had
changed. 1t was wonderful to be
able at last to smash them back,
as the fighters had done at Darwin.
And from its base in North Austria
liza, the old 10Th Bombardment Group
which included the 7th now-was
flying out over New Guinea and New
Britain islands, landing heavy
punches on them at Lac and Sala-
maua, and at Rabaul.
Now the Jap lines of communica-
ton were as far extended as ours
had been; now we had something
like the equipment they had put
against US. We knew, of course,
they were busy digesting Java and
the Philippines. But we felt now
they could never knock us back on
our heels again, because we were
getting solidly dug in so we could
soak up their punches and put out
few of our own. 1t was nice feeling.
"Also the Japs were getting a
healthy respect for the E-model
Forts. A lot of the stuff you read
about the Japs may be true, and
yet all the ones I've met turn out to
be only people-starting with Kobi
Ishi, who was fairly nice guy and
just a pretty good diver. I COM
peted against him in both the 1882
Olympiad in Los Angeles, and in
the 1886 one in Berlin. Happened
to beat all the japanese entries both
times, and thought nothing of it
until after I returned this time from
the Far East and began reading
they were supermen.
Not long after the Olympics, I
heard Kobi Ishi had entered the Jap
Air Force. After that l thought of
them all as Kobi Ishi, pretty good
diver with some fair tricks and a
toothy smile, but nothing you can't
handle if you train for it. Maybe
they're all fanatics, craving to die
for the Emperor, but l remember a
story the 10Th told me in Australia.
six of our Forts were coming in
over Rabaul to give the Japs a
pasting when one lone Zero showed
up. The six Forts were all brand
new E models, and the Japs had
learned about them. The Forts con-
tinued in formation, but keeping
their guns trained on the Zero. Now
most fighter pilots, whether they're
American, Jap, or German, are
nervous and quick like fox terriers.
There's no gap between thinking and
acting, SO you can almost watch a
fighter plane and read its pilots
mind. That's how it was with this
little Jap. He starts in, thinking
here's chance to pick off a Fort,
and then suddenly he sees all those
guns and thinks how sweet and cute
his little almond-eyed geisha is back
home, and how nice it would be to
get back to her, SO about half a mile
away he pulls out in a turn, out of
range, and continues parallel with
the six Forts, thinking it over. Well,
the little geisha finally wins out
over the Emperor, because he
doesn't go in, but he thumbs his nose
at them in his way: flying alongside,
with all of our gang watching, he
starts doing Immelmann turns. It's
a half-loop, which brings you out
upside down only flying backward,
quickly followed by half-ron,
which turns you right side up again.
And it's one of the hardest tricks in
the book If done properly-beautiful
flying, the boys said, and he kept
doing 1t over and over, just out of
range, as much as to say, Boys.
I'm not coming In, but don't think
can't fly Kept it up for fifteen
minutes in his latest-model super
charged Zero, and just as he tipped
off into a cloud, our gang waved
their applause for the flying circus,
and he gave them the high sign
back. To me he was Kobi Ishi. I'd
like to meet him after the war.
In early April Port Moresby on