The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-07-21

our ugnterS must nave knocked OH
hundreds Of Zeros which we've new
er claimed. We fight them until
their gas is almost gone, and when
they finally break away and start
for home, they slide quietly into
the sea with dry tanks.
'"Those fighters at Darwin are q
great gang Of kids, and they've in
vented their own service uniform,
which might not pass parade inspec-
ton back here. It consists of q
long duck-billed hunters cap, usu-
ally red, plus a pair of white cotton
shorts and nothing much else. They
don't like clothes because Of the
fire hazard-cloth soaks up squirting
gasoline, which will drop off naked
flesh. They won't wear ordinary
shoes, This started when one Of
them had to bail out in the desert
back of Darwin and when his chute
cracked open, the jerk tipped his
shoes off. He had to walk barefoot
for days over the Australian desert.
Now they wear tennis shoes or cow
boy boots; which won't flip off. This
costume includes a belt, to which is
attached a jungle kit on one side
and a AS on the other. The AS
they keep covered with cellophane
candy-bar wrappers SO it won't rust.
They look more like pirates than
pilots, and so did the ones at Mores-
by.
"When General Brett put Buzz in
charge Of the Moresby- Townsville
fighters, he didn't issue an order
for Buzz to stay on the ground at
his desk in Pursuit Interceptor Conn
mand Headquarters at Townsville,
but in a nice way he unofficially re-
quested it.
'But Buzz was itching at the pa
per work. He was a fighter, not a
desk man. And at Moresby he had
new youngsters just in from the
States. Their morale was low.
They'd been having an awful time
with the weather, and also the Japs
had been coming in and shooting UP
the place, catching these kids in the
air and picking off too many. They
needed someone to show them how
to handle P-39 Airacobra against
the Zero-both planes have their
points.
$50 one day when he's up inspect
ing Moresby-he spent most of his
time there-without any formality
Buzz steps into a P-39 and leads
them. They were all agog. They've
heard of the Great Wagner, but they
aren't sure the stories Of what he'd
done in the Philippines mightn't be
a myth:
"He led twelve Of them out above
New Guinea, over the Owen Stanley
range, on q mission in the direction
Of the big Jap base at Lac, from
which they were returning over the
ocean when they ran into q Japa-
nese trap.
"The Japs had flight Of Zeros
circling a spot which our boys must
pass on their homeward leg. Buzz
said it was partly his fault for not
having told his gang of twelve TO-
refrain from combat on this home
ward leg, because they needed all
their gas to get back, while the
Japs were freshly fueled from q
nearby base.
"But when the two end men on
the flight saw the Japs, they peeled
off, and Buzz saw he'd have trouble
holding the rest, SO he gave the
signal over the phones to 60 on in.
Buzz said it was a lovely battle
the whole argument rolled thirty
miles up the beach and then thirty
miles back again, like big tumble
weed on the prairie. Buzz shot
down three Japs himself, and his
wing men two-a total of five Japs
for the day. We gave three planes
to get them Zone was forced down
gasless), but we didn't lose a pilot
on that fight.
''That did the business for those
green, scared kids. When they saw
Buzz's gunsights trained on Zero,
watched his .50-caliber chewing it
up right in front of them, they real
lied it could be done, and, more inn
portant, they saw they had a leader
which was all they needed to put
them back in business.
'That night, sitting with me under
the mosquito-netting canopy we'd
thrown over the wing of the Swoose,
was the first time ] saw Buzz really
worried. Because when General
Brett found out about this, what
would he say? Buzz was worried
that the General would not only re-
quest him to stay on the ground,
he'd make it an order in writing,
and then the fun would be over.
'Buzz was twenty-six years old,
and he hadn't gone up just to hang
three more on his record, but be-
cause he really loved it. But he
said in the future he thought rather
than risk an order grounding him,
he'd stay out of combat with Zeros
and confine his activities to develop
ing mast high bombing attacks
against transports. He thought his
kids should all be trained to do it,
and he'd done a lot himself. You