The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-02-10
Washington Calling

BY MARQUIS CHILDS

EIGHTH AIR FORCE BOMBER BASE,
Somewhere in England-call it morale or
| spirit or whatever you want to, but this 446th
Bomber group has got it,
| 1t isn't that they're cocky in any juvenile
way It's just that you have sense of men
working together seriously a task on which
they are concentrating all possible effort.
| A lot of it must come from the commanding
officer, who is Colonel Troy w. Crawford A
flyer for Is years, he is called 1.-The Old Man,
and that is the legend painted in big red letters
on the side of his PAT.
"The Old Man. uses his PAT to ride herd On
squadrons when they are forming up after the
take-off. He does it with the same sure ex-
pertness with which, back in his home in
Texas, a good coWhand would ride herd on
cattle.
Since he became commanding officer of the
BASE six months ago, this bomber group has
taken the lead over all the others in the
division From December "a to January l.,
the 446th had the greatest number of hits
that any group in the division ever had.
Through photographs taken by automatic
cameras at the time of bombing, a careful
record is kept, and scored of Individual crews,
squadrons and groups are checked for accur-
| acy.
| After he took over the base, Colonel CraW-
ford started the process of shifting squadron
leaders and crew leaders in an effort to find
the best men for particular jobs. That is how
he explains the record established by his group
getting the right men in the right places.
One of his crew leaders Of whom he speaks
most proudly is Captain Alfred Knopf Jr., OF
New York, son of the publisher of the same
name Knopf has flown about half of the 30
mission which constitute tour OF duty.
The executive officer of the base is Major
J. L. Spooner, who comes from John Nance
Gamers home town. Uvalde, Texas. Spooner
is responsible for all the housekeeping for
several thousand men on the base. He is re-
sponsible for bombs and fuel, as well as the
smallest details of living.
It's just about a 24-hour job On one of the
nights I was at th,, base, he was Wakened at
2 in the mo-ring by a crisis caused by frozen
waterpipes and he didn't get into bed again
until II that night. Spooner does lot of
cussing over British "inefficiency,'' or per-
haps it's merely their different way OF doing
things.
Like most Texans, he's just as much a
Texan in gray, rainy England as he is In
UValde. He reacts against a certain kind of
British snobbism and class distinction. Once
at tea at local ariStocrat'S castle, some Brit
lshers were reciting their distinguished pre-
war occupations and when Spooner'S turn
came he said he was a goat herder-which is
literally true, since he has a goat ranch out
side UValde
The senior intelligence officer at the base
is Maj or Milton R. Stahl of St. Louis, former
chatham OIL the MISSOURI PuDuc service CON-
mission. He arranges and supervises the BRET
ings Although over so, he has gone on IL bomb
ing missions and has Bronze Star, equivalent
to the Distinguished Flying Cross. and an Air
medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. Stahl says it is
important for an intelligence officer to go
on missions because he gets an idea of how
the men see things, and they feel he is one
of them. In Is months at the base, he has had
only six leaves
In London and in Washington you hear a
great deal about publicity for the Air Forces
don't think these men are interested in pup
licity as such But they do want the people
back home to have some understanding of the
magnitude ar Importance Of the job they
doing They do not want it taken for granted.
The overall picture-how much air power
has contributed to the winning of the war
is not their concern. In any event, that ap-
praisal can come only after final victory when
a thorough and impartial study will be in
order.
Certainly the success of D-Day and the
sweep across France that followed would not
have been possible without the preliminary
work of the Air Forces. Certainly the intensive
bombing of Germany has contributed to the
successes Of the Russian armies
The men of the 446th Bomber group talk
very little about such things They're concern
ed with the number of hits on yesterdays tar
get; with getting their planes into the air and
getting them back again
Copyright 1945 by United Feature
Syndicate, Inc.)