The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-12-15
VIM. RELEASE

IOT even ten minutes Tears
came to my eyes-I knew ] had
been a fool.
For hours I lay awake. And then,
In the darkness, / think l saw the
other side. Suppose / called that
officer who had telephoned me from
Washington. Suppose I called and
told him that had lied-that had
never flown Flying Fortress. /
could easily get out Of this mission
but the thought was one that ]
couldn't entertain even for second.
For now the seriousness of war had
gradually come to me. Unless men
like myself-thousands and millions
of them-left these wonderful lux
uries in this great land of America
we could lose it all forever. ! loved
these two with all my heart, but
the only way in all the world to
keep them living in the clean world
they were accustomed to was to
steel myself to the pain Of parting
with them for months or years-or
even forever. The actuality Of war,
grim war, had come. ! knew then
that the theoretical word "Democ-
racy" was not what we were to fight
for. ! knew it was for no party, no
race, creed, or color. We were go
ing to fight, and many of us were to
die, for just what I had here-my
wife and family. To me, they were
all that was real, they were all
that / could understand. To me,
they were America.
Next day we got the household
goods packed. We piled on an east
bound train and left California. That
ride for me was the saddest thing
that has ever happened. ! would
look at those two and see that my
wife was thinking my own thought;
even the little girl seemed to sense
that all was not well. At Memphis,
l almost casually babe them good
by, and we parted. But as watched
their train disappear down the track
knew that part of my life was
gone. My world was grim.
Reaching my assembly point for
instructions, found that / was re-
porting to Col Caleb v. Haynes, one
of the greatest of big-ship pilots
the pilot in our Air Force who had
devoted much of his life to making
the four-engine bomber the weapon
that it is today. The entire group
of officers and men made quite
gathering. I learned that they were
all picked men, and that they had
volunteered and almost fought for
places on the crews of the For
tresses. And as heard the expla-
nation of the flight from Colonel
Haynes l saw the reason for their
excitement.
This was "dream mission"-one
that was a million kinds of adven-
ture rolled into one.
We were to fly thirteen four-engine
bombers - one B-24 and twelve
B-17E's-to Asia. There we were
to "bomb up" the ships after we
had gone as far East as we possibly
could, and then were to bomb OBJ
jectives in Japan. Our orders read
that we were to coordinate our at
tack from the West with another at
tack that was coming from the East.
The sadness that had been with
me since leaving my family van
ished. Once again saw the war in
a spirit of adventure. Here was
what any soldier might have prayed
for-here was what the American
public had been clamoring for dur
ing the months since Pearl Harbor.
was fortunate to be one Of the pi-
lots; it almost made up for my
failure to finally get into single
scatter fighter ships again--almost,
but not quite.
That night we talked things over
and met each other, and next morn
ing we left for Washington, with our
newly drawn equipment. Our planes
were in Florida, being made ready
for combat, but we were obliged to
go by way of Washington for the
purpose, astounding in war, of Sc
curing diplomatic passports. ! re-
member that even in the joy Of the
mission, I couldn't help wondering
what kind Of war this one could
be. We were having to secure pass
ports in order to be able to fight.
Visas were obtained for all coun-
tries we were to fly over and
CHRONOLOGICAL, Liberia, Nigeria,
Egypt, Arabia, India-and China,
especially Visas-to 60 to war!
Properly inoculated against four
teen diseases, with visas for every
where, with trinkets for trade with
natives in Africa, Arabia, and Bur-
ma, we went on down to Florida.
The instant I landed hunted out
my ship-B-17E-Air Corps number
Al 9031. I soon painted on its nose
the red map of Japan, conferred by
the cross-hairs of a modern bomb
sight, with the cross right over To-
kyo. In my poor Latin was in
scribed blades alb Altar" - or
roughly, "Hel from on High"
/ climbed into the control room
of my ship and met my crew. Each
man was a character, each man
xr,o1fad hadlv IN oct ctartad