The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1944-03-23

!
ness on a secret mission-and did
not come back We never knew
what happened. Weeks later the
native constabulary of Negros Island
was to bring in the cushion of his
planet had cracked up against a
mountain in the dark"
"But, sweetheart, said Margo,
you're forgetting your first cable"
mo, I'm not," said Frank 81 got
1t off as soon as I could-gave it
to someone who was going in to Ma
Mia to file on December seven
teenth."
"All it said," Margo explained,
twas:
Beloved Doing all right under
circumstances Wire Eddy's broth
er. Frank
"Of course l sent the wire, but /
couldn't understand at all. Eddie,
| of course, was Franks navigator on
| Old go. But what about the other
boys? Why hadn't Frank told me
to wire their families of all the
sergeants. 1t wasn't like Frank
| to forget.
Anyway, all cables are unsatis-
factory. This one was dated at Ma
Mia on the seventeenth, so of course
| Frank had been alive then. But /
hadn't got it until the nineteenth.
| Anything could have happened in
those two days, and for the first
time in my life / was powerless to
| help him. I'd been furiously writ
ing letters-still addressing them to
| Clark Field. Each was a problem,
| because wanted each to fill need
| couldn't tell him I was worried,
because that would be letting him
| down. He would think didn't have
complete confidence in him. would
start to write the little news about
| family affairs, and it seemed SO
| trite-because maybe he'd be read
| ing it in a foxhole, not having eaten
! for a week. Maybe he'd be wound
ed. And maybe each one would be
the last letter he would get-for a
long while the only thing he'd hear
from me.
"Then I had to do something about
myself could see that. Sitting in
| my room thinking, / would go to
pieces. And wanted to get started
doing something useful before Christ
mas. Back in October Frank prom
ised me he'd call on Christmas Day,
| and now realized I'd been building
on hearing his voice then more than
| / knew. / also realized that maybe
he wouldn't be able to. If that call
didn't come through, it would be
| hard for me to take.
"My little brother (he's a fighter
pilot now) was getting married out
on the Coast during the holidays.
| They were asking me to 60 out. But
| suppose Frank did call me Christ
| mas, and missed me? ! decided to
wait in Omaha for that call.
"But just waiting would drive any,
one crazy. ! wanted to help-to get
close to the Air Corps. So went
down to Colonel Houghland's Office
he was air officer of our 7th Corps
area in Omaha-and put it up to
| him.
''He didn't laugh because wanted
to work without pay-he couldn't
have been nicer. He showed me
huge piles of applications for avia-
tion-cadet assignments in the Air
Corps that were coming in. ! could
help, he explained, by classifying
and filing these, getting them in
their proper groups, help speed up
the stream of reinforcements which
the boys out East would need so
| badly-we didn't dream how badly"
eve needed everything" said
! Frank. Ground crews, pilots, CO.
| pilots. And to make it worse, our
own group commander, Colonel Eu-
bank, had been hurt and was in
Manila hospital.
'We were getting more and more
uneasy. Here we were, comforta-
BILE on this beautiful field. 1t was as
peaceful as Clark Field had been
before December eighth. We'd fled
| from Clark down here to Mindanao,
and even as we were arriving the
Japs were putting troops ashore at
the southern tip of this same island,
where thirty thousand japanese
farmers" had taken over the city
of Davao on the first day.
"But here at Del Monte we saw
| people who didn't seem to know a
| war was on. The only military
around was some kind of trans
portation outfit. The first day we
were there / got hold of couple
of privates and gave them orders
to dim out the headlights of every
car-no matter whose-that ap-
preached the field. But the trans
portation officer decided he'd stop
all that. It seemed the boys, carry
ing out my orders, had even stopped
staff car, and the transportation
officer explained that they needed
more light
''Well, our planes were on that
| field, and / knew the Japs were
headed down the coast and would be
here soon enough anyway, and ]
didn't want to attract them any
sooner than necessary.
"But before they did come, the
old 10Th Bombardment Group-or
what was left of it-got in some
mighty hard licks at them. For in
stance, there was the lie Gaspi Bay
mission. Our Intelligence reported
a big concentration of Jap ships
moving south toward us down the
coast of Luzon. Of course that meant