The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-03-24
CHAPTER Nv

ing flashlights around unnecessarily,
and thought, Suppose Jap Rocco
plane catches CLINT Of this Pretty
soon I heard plane and raised up
to listen, but when it came in plain
er I recognized the deep four-motor
grind of one Of our own Fortresses-
it was undoubtedly one of the dozen
which had been left down on Del
Monte Field, now coming in from
the long trip from Mindanao to spend
the rest of the night on Clark and
in the morning pound some of those
scores of Jap transports which were
said to be swarming off Luzon.
"And I hoped to God that single
remaining runway strip had been
cleared so they could get down, and
they wouldn't have to circle and 60
back home. Just then a nervous
antiaircraft battery opened up on the
Fortress, and then they all did.
"And what about Mango, halfway
around the world? Had she heard
anything? And how long would it be
before I could tell her that Eddie
Oliver and I were all that were left
of Old SO she had waved goodby to
at Albuquerque six weeks ago? Or
would ever tell her?
81 had promised the boys this was
just the opening game and that there
were a lot more Saturdays coming,
so what did it matter if this first
one belonged to the Japs? In the
end we would win. Only now ! be-
gan wondering about that sprawling
line and where it pointed to. Maybe
it trailed off into nothing, and at
the end would be only chaos and de-
feat. I didn't know, and when I
realized it would do no good to guess
or hope, then I went to sleep.
"Over at the field, six of the Min
danao gang had come up from Del
Monte, coming in two and three at
a time and landing on the two-thou-
sand-foot strip of runway which was
all that remained of Clark Field.
Then they had been pulled off into
dispersed areas while they were
gassed up and loaded with bombs.
The pilots of this half-dozen were
now assembled while the Colonel
gave them their targets, and tower
ing over the group was Colin Kelly
I could see his curly black head, his
shoulders back as usual. I knew
the boys would be headed out into
plenty of trouble, and I couldn't help
walking over to listen while the Colo
mel briefed Colin. ! felt a little
brotherly about him because he'd
been one of my co-pilots back on
March Field. Now he was headed
out on his first battle mission.
''Colin was photographing every
word in his mind. He looked tired
from flying all night, had had little
if any sleep-his ordinarily neat uni
form was sneared with grease as
though he'd been working on his
engines himsef-and we had time
only to exchange waves as he head,
ed for his plane to load his bombs
and I climbed up into the tower.
''The thing was practically sieve
from bullets which had ripped
through the corrugated iron during
yesterdays strafing. A couple of
privates had been up there for twen-
ty-four hours without food or relief
! guess everybody must have for
gotten them, but they'd done swell
job. Looking at all those jagged
holes in the sheet-iron walls, I didn't
see how they'd come out alive, but
they explained it-told me if got
strafed, / could lie down along one
sheet-iron wall behind a pile of lead
battery cases used to run the field
lights.
''My job Of course was to handle
the tower lights-give the boys the
signal when they could come in to
land on the field-but the Colonel
wasn't taking any chances losing
any more on the ground. He said
when any Fortresses came back, to
keep them in the air, circling the
field, until he changed the order.
Presently there comes scooting
in one of those little low P-26's that
were used by the Filipino Air Force
-an old stick-and-wire job with nom
retractable landing gear which is
practically museum piece. ! give
him the green light, because I can
zee he is already so full of bullet
holes / don't see how he can stay in
the air-and out jumps this little
Filipino fighter pilot. All he wants
is more gas and more bullets for his
little .30-caliber gun, and he's back
up in the air for more of it. Those
kids did a magnificent job for their
islands with that decrepit junk.
Everybody was jumpy-we didn't
know what minute the Japs would
come back. I watched one truck
that was wandering around the field
with gang filling up bomb craters.
Suddenly the afraid bell sounded,
and those guys dived out of the truck
in every direction to run for fox
holes, .leayipg. the driyerless.. truck
IN keen V1a1derinQ RIGHT ON over. Onfo