The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-12-22
CHAPTER vi

myself acquainted with this big arr
plane. Doug had learned to fly at
the period when l had been instruct
ing. I had taught his class to fly;
now the tables were turned and ne
would have to be the instructor for
while. Don't forget that as yet l
hadn't flown BITE.
Introducing myself to my co-pilot,
I said, "How about showing me how
to fly this ship-I want to see how
to work these turbos and SUCH" He
merely grinned at me in disbelief.
saw, Colonel" he said, "you can
fly the thing-why, you taught me
to fly" finally got him to give me
some cockpit instruction by explain
ing that though I had many thou
sand hours in PTS, BITS, and other
trainers, and knew lots about single
seaters and fast twin-engine medl-
una bombers, knew nothing about
sucl. planes as this big devil.
Ee showed me the approved meth
Cd Of starting the four engines, when
to use the booster switches, how to
set the turbos, how to lock the tail
wheel-and generally how to pick
up that fifty-seven thousand pounds
Of flying dynamite and take it around
the field. / flew it for two landings
that afternoon, and that night l
climbed all over the Fortress, read
Ane entire maintenance manual, and
learned from scratch what made the
big ship go. Next day / soloed it
for over four hours, and after the
twentieth landing l felt as if was
ready to start for war.
Then we tested everything-fired
all guns at targets in the everglades,
and the cordite from all those roar
ing fifty calibres gave even the
swampy "glades" sweet aroma.
My gunners were eager to be on the
way, and I soon found that they
knew exactly what they were doing.
Private Motley was my tail gum
ner. During the entire trip l think
he stayed in the tail ninety per cent
of the time, just to get used to the
way to handle the tail turret. / used
to say of Motley that he just didn't
care where he was going-he want
ed to see where he had been.
Sergeant Aaltonen, the engineer,
was charged with keeping the en-
gines functioning properly, and in
general the entire enlisted personnel
was under him. He was diligent
Finn and one of the bravest men
I have ever seen. can see Aalto-
men now, standing there behind my
seat and the co-pilot's seat, upper
turbed in the toughest of storms,
from the violent currents OF the
equatorial front of the Hama% ms
to the Shimals of Africa and Ara
bia. Eternally watching the many
instruments, waiting to correct the
slightest trouble even before it hap
pened. When we were lost over
trackless seas he was never ruff1ed,
but ready at all times with informa-
ton as to fuel consumption and the
best RPM's for cruising. Once when
he was told that we would probably
have to land in the Atlantic there
was no change in the expression on
his face; he simply began to move
the provisions to point where they
could be quickly placed in the rub
Der boats. His job in case of attack
was to man the top turret with its
twin Fifties.
Sergeant Baldbridge was the head
radioman. His secondary duty was
to handle one of the waist guns back
aft of midships. Corporal Cobb was
second radioman; he would leave
that to enter the lower turret. The
other waist gun on this flight was
to be handled by a radio officer,
Lieutenant Hershey.
The navigator was a Lieutenant
whom I'll call Jack. He was a
nervy kid who liked his job. know
that after our mission he made
many raids as navigator to bomb
the Japs in Rangoon.
We tested the bombardier and the
bombsight, too, before we started
the fight. Lean, lanky, six-foot-
three Bombardier George never
did see how he managed to wiggle
into the nose of the Fortress.
can see him there now, tense over
his sight, waiting for the bombs to
go-ever with the cross-hairs on the
target. George had couple of fifty
calibre guns up there in the nose
with him, too. He was just the OPP
posite of the tail gunner-he never
did know where he had been but
always got there first.
And SO the eight of them made
up my crew-eight good soldiers
who had volunteered and who want
ed to hurt the enemy. None of
them worried about whether or not
he'd get home-for he knew of big
ger things that had to be done.
We had to test everything, for it
was over sixteen thousand miles to
Japan the way we were having to
60; there couldn't be a slip-up on
this mission, and so we didn't take
a chance. When finally all was set