The midland journal., 1944-12-29
CHAPTER VII

Maybe the meal was really good
I've forgotten. But later we were
to have some meals which were def
initely on the rugged side. Some
time just try a breakfast at three
a. m. composed of warmed-over,
mouldy, then re-warmed toast, with
slightly sour canned tomatoes. After
this year and more, can close my
eyes and see Col. c. V. Haynes sit
ting there looking at that delicacy-
thinking, no doubt, about Carolina
country ham, with brown gravy
making a little puddle in the grits.
Well fed but on the tired side,
we left the base at 1885, for our
next destination farther down the
coast. For more than two hundred
miles we were over friendly terri
tory as we Rugged the beaches, but
later, along the Ivory Coast, we had
to fly cut to sea to avoid the prying
eyes that were Vichy French. l
must have sworn deeply that after
noon, for in my diary note now
that / wrote this line: "Damn, we
have to dodge those b all the
time"
We passed fighter base at 17:0O
G.M.T., and one hour later we land
ed at another West Coast base. The
sun was setting back to the West in
the Atlantic-towards home. Easter
Sunday was fast coming to a close.
I remembered then, from "hearsay
evidence" that had been born ex-
actly thirty-four years before. From
personal experience / would be able
to recall this Easter as memora-
BILE one.
Next day, while the crew worked
on the tired airplane, some OF us
drove into the bush country. With
guide we made about ten-hour trip
into the interior, to Togoland. En-
tering typical dirty village we
heard jazz music and picked our
way towards the source. I imagine
all of us were expecting to find a
radio or a victrola; instead we
found that we were really in the
land that had 'birthed" jazz.
Grouped about an earthen crock Of
palm wine was the population of the
village, and the more they dipped
the gourd cups into the stagnant-
looking liquor, the hotter the music
became and the more the sweating
black bodies swayed to the beat Of
the drums. Their bare feet were
moving to the rhythm in the dust,
and their naturally musical voices,
added to the syncopated rumble that
came from black hands humping
many kinds Of drums, made us won
der whether some orchestra like
Cab Calloway's hadn't come to AZ
rica with us on USO project.
On April we left the Gold Coast
for Kano, in Nigeria. OF at 08:00
G.M.T., we few a course Of 80 de-
grees to miss more of Vichy France.
Over Lagos, in the clammy heat of
the equatorial jungle, we turned
into the continent to course of So
degrees and continued over very
thick country until we crossed the
Niger. From there on East, the
land that was Africa seemed to dry
up, and my boyhood conception of
how the Dark Continent should look
faded away. Instead of constant
jungle we now saw dry desert, like
the lower hump Of Brazil near Ma
tai, or places in our own West.
We landed at the old walled city
of Kano that afternoon. Our next
take-off, for Khartoum, would best
be made at nightfall, in order that
we might land in the Sudan early in
the morning before the dust storms
had impaired the visibility. To
waste time we walked into town to
see the ancient city of Biblical days.
Soon we found ourselves lodging
camels, lepers, and Ali Baba-with
his more than forty thieves.
General Chennault's AVG was
composed Of three squadrons, func-
tioning under the supreme command
of China's Generalissimo Chang
Kai-shek. About seventy pilots and
three hundred ground crew person.
mel made up this organization, which
for nearly four months had been in
combat against the japanese Air
Vorces from Rangoon up to Lashio,
Burma. These American boys had
aome from the air services Of the
American Army, Navy and Marine
Corps.
y The General was an old pilot,
nd through many years Of single
srNter flying in the noise of open
cockpits had become moderately
deaf, a circumstance that had
B-lped to bring about his retirement.
knowing that war with Japan was
more than probable, after his re-
Yrement he had gone to China, and
there he had not only persuaded
the GeReralissimo to build the air
warning net within China, but had
worked to train China's Air Force as
well. Growing out of this, when
the brave Chinese Air Force was
virtually destroyed by the over
whelnling odds Of the Japanese Jug
gernaut. chennault had long cher