Laurel outlook., 1944-07-05

gineers toiled in the gathering heat.
Doc Tulloch was back empty handed.
The captain with the broken foot
had been too dazed to keep his di-
rections straight. Doc got another
set of directions from the injured
sergeant and set out again. But
again the directions were wrong and
again Tulloch came out empty hand
ed and dead-beat with cutting |
through Jungle growth for upward
of 10 miles.
Brigadier Calvert roughed in the
casualty list as it was known to us
and we could guess it farther from
known factors of missing gliders
and suddenly it vas amazingly small
for what it had purchased; in
another six hours thousands of
troops would pour in in power ships
on this airport of ours-that some
of the first wave men had died to
secure.
There was the hum of light
motors in the sky suddenly and over
the treetops came the tiny planes of
Major Rebori, jaunty, frail and in
solent in their perfect formation.
They had come across the vast
enemy-held terrain at tree-top level
with belly tanks to get them there.
The helldivers came to take out the
injured. We got one of them to
cruise the jungle and locate Docs
crash. He brought in the exact
bearing. We shot the azimuth and
cut the rank growth, and after an
hour of it we found the crash. Two
had survived it and we got
them out. Jerry Dunn was in there
to stay, as were the rest. He
had been wrong-you mustn't talk
about it-you mustn't think about
it when you have an appointment
Samara. You will keep it whether
you talk or not.
The American engineers toiled on
the long steaming after
noon, smoothing the strip for the
power ships, frightening it-making
he airport. Their officer lay in
in that jungle crash with the l
est of them-the third officer they +
lave lost to date. "Everytime we l
ret a job in Burma we lose an of
They stood around for .
moment helpless, b~ewildered, angry =
leep inside themselves. Then young 7!
3rackett, the last lieutenant they Ii
lad, said "OK-two more hours of n
"y ShS SSC SOhiS.
The combat engineers-shovels and
Machine guns and all the toughest
obs in war to debut with the holy
Tres of something in their souls to t
AIRY them on with it-something a
hat only a combat engineer can f
nderstand-and nobody else need q
ry to.
The sun was low, sinking to the
rec tops and the shadows were
ooling deep across the clearing
nat clearing far in enemy terri le
Try, so far that when you looked g
t it on a map you still couldn't a.
ute believe that you were there,
ut you were; and it was no longer
1emy territory, it belonged to us.
was an airport ringed now with
1ough men to hold it for the time al
lat was left to wait-test lighted er
n the tr~oop-carrying power ships Al
the sun went down-and the 1u
ghts worked.
A wrecked glider was the control
wer-John Alison was ready in it
18th his control radio. y,
All that air strip needed was a ~,
lme. Then suddenly it didn't need -
name; it had many names, names .,
OH brooklyn ana CarOl1na, London l.
i'd the North Country, Liverpool, OF
exas and Nepal-names of the al
en- who had paid off to make IT,
who were there with it deep in
e Burma jungle-who would stay
ere with it forever, watching it.
There was a motor roar far up in
e evening sky-the first of the
pop ships they came IL and circled
r Alison's landing beam and got
roaring down in Johnson's land
taxieing off the strip to dis
rye the army. They came in
ster than they ever could at La
ardia field-one after mother,
cutting in their landing
hts, roaring down on the lighted
lip. You could count for awhile,
IN you lost count and you asked
income, and the figure was I'M u