The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-08-04
CHAPTER XIII

O0 Tile MdJOT started OuL ulGu vi
an ordinary box-search problem,
trying to find this Cloncurry-you fly
so many minutes north, and then
east, and then south, and then west,
and then, lengthening your time,
north again, and so on. We kept
this up for quite a while, but no
Cloncurry, and our gas was running
out. I'll say this, though, the Major
sure wasn't running short of advice.
What with his cockpit full Of air gen.
erals of all nations, he had plenty Of
that, and every different kind you
can imagine-they all knew just
what to do.
"The trouble was, every time he
paced from the nose of the plane
back to the tail, it would throw the
plane out Of balance, and Frank
here would have to trim ship, in
addition to all the questions he was
answering. I guess this PAGER had
never thought Of that.
"By this time Frank had decided
the only thing to do was to make
a forced landing, so he was leaning
over the side trying to pick spot. I"
with all Of those guys yammer-
ing at you, telling you what to dc"
said Red, "and this guy pacing. Only
for while he stopped, but just for
minute, while he was putting on a
parachute. Why, I wouldn't quite
know. Because we were down to
500 feet, and if he did jump of course
It would never have time to crack.
But ! didn't say a word, because
buckling himself in was keeping him
quiet. Only right away he starts
this pacing again, with the poor Ma
jor trying to nose her down for a
crash landing, and he tells me to
tell them all to get back in the tail
so it will act as brake, only this
guy starts pacing again.
''Now I was getting the jumps,
for even if the Major is the best pi-
lot in the business, a crash landing
Is no joke, even for old-timers. So
I grabs this pacing guy and Now
look / says to him. You may car
ny plenty of rank on your shoulders,
but to this pilot you're just two hum
bred pounds of ballast. So now you
quit shifting around-you get on
back there and sit down. And
herded him back to the very tip end
of the plane, and pushed him down,
parachute and all, on that little seat.
You've probably been wondering all
along Just where this little seat is,
on bomber. Well, it's just where
it would be any place else-even on
a farm-all you do is follow the
clothes line, back down to the end
Of the grape arbor, and there she
sets.
sWell, pushed him down on the
seat, and in about a minute there
was quite bump, but still it was a
perfect three-point landing. In four
seconds the Major had her rolling
smooth. The ground was soft.
Twenty-Five tons is a lot OF bomb
er, and her wheels began to sink in
about six inches. But the Major
could sense this, so he gave gas to
all four engines to keep her rolling,
and TAXED her up to high ground
hard enough to hold her up.
''We got out. Pretty soon Aus
tralian ranchers begin crawling out
of holes in the ground-I don't know
where else they came from-and
right away Lieutenant Commander
Johnson gets busy. He begins to
get acquainted. They tell him where
we are and some of them 60 off to
get a truck to take us into town
where we can telephone, and more
keep coming, and Johnson is shak-
ing hands all around, and he comes
back and tells us these are real
folks-the best darn folks In the
world, except maybe the folks in his
own Texas. Pretty soon he knows
all their first names, and they're
telling him why there ought to be a
high tariff on wool, and there's no
question he swung that county for
johnson before we left. He was in
his element. / know he sure swung
the Swoose crew. He can carry
that precinct any day."
Listening to him made us all
homesick," said Frank, $50 / sup
pose it was a good thing we got
suddenly. ordered back to the States
at the end of the month. In Curl
Gus way was ready now to come.
I'd turned it down before, because
after we were thrown out of Java
we all had that sick feeling-trying
to hold onto something that was
slipping away in spite of everything
you did. You couldn't walk out
feeling things might suddenly cave
in again.
''But now it was different. In
Australia and that island chain
above we were getting firmly set,
the way we should have been in the
Philippines and Java, and didn't
have time.
"But we'd had it now, and knew
how to use it. Best of all, we were
finally getting some fighting equip
ment, not just production figures.
So even though we were soaking up