The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-08-23

any other problem that developed in
this war that had to be won, was
must"
expect I wouldn't have been
much good in combat that day If II
had come. for | was doing TOO much
thinking, and fighter pilots can do
only one thing at a time. Even
when |. landed and walked about
among the Chinese dead from the
Christmas Day bombing, I just kept
on thinking.
That afternoon at two o'clock |
got all our ships in the sky again.
| rode on Holloway's wing over the
top of them all, and we watched
and waited for our interceptors on
the Mekong to yell. Here they
come" Nothing happened-I guess
General Chennault was right again.
You destroyed their group yester-
day." he had said that morning.
We've got them worried, and they Il
have to wait for their long supply
line around to Burma to send some
, more planes"
When the sun got low on the blue
hills of Yunnan, | began my thinking
again. There was no use fooling
ourselves - the situation in China
was bad. All of China that was de-
veloped at all was in the hands of
the japanese. The Jap had worked
with extreme foresight in preparing
for this war, and the heart Of the
octopus" was going 10 be hard to
get at. But It could be done more
easily from China-and 1t had to be
done. These people, who with their
stoical bravery had seen their cities
bombed for over six years, deserved
more help. We must equip their
land armies, help train them-and
give them air support.
got to thinking about something
that had occurred a few days be-
fore, when the Christmas season was
approaching. I had just had my
twelfth little Jap flag painted on the
fuselage of my PACK Each of these
represented a confirmed victory over
the enemy, and my crew chief was
as proud as | was. But I learned
that day that some one else was
sharing in that pride too.
On my way to work that day. 6riv-
ing from the Generals house to the
operations shack, I had seen a
crowd of Chinese around my ship.
They were sitting there silently and
waiting, and I wondered at them.
But the old American answer came
to me-"We never can figure them
out"-and ! went on. As ! passed
by during the morning the Chinese
people were still standing around
my plane in the drizzling rain.
Finally I called for my crew chief
and asked the meaning of the
crowd. With a puzzled look, he re-
piled that he didn't know: they had
told him through an interpreter that
wait for the pilot of the ship. sent
one of my interpreters to investigate
and learned that they were really
waiting for me; they had received
permission from the Chinese Com
mandant to enter the field.
Some time later l walked over to
where they were still standing in
the slow rain. AS approached my
ship they bowed as the Chinese do,
by standing at what we would call
Attention" and nodding the head in
respect. AS | smiled at them-rag-
ged children, old men and women,
coolies from the fields, and several
who I thought were school teachers
they raised their thumbs high to-
wards me and yelled, "Ding-hao,
ding-haol" And they pointed with
pride to my twelve flags.
They were cheering me, foreign
er, for my fights over their home
land. realized then, as tears mixed
with the raindrops on my face, that
they had bestowed on me an honor
that exceeded in Importance any
medal that their country could have
awarded me officially. I realized
too that though the coast-lines of
this country were in the hands of
| the enemy, though the lands to al
most every side were hostile, the
hearts of this people were free and
would be free forever.
Later / learned that the group had
walked all through the night before
from village twenty odd kilome-
ters away. Now they were on their
way home again. believe that If I
had thought about a tribute like that
in combat, I would have gone head
on into a Japanese fighter or closed
! to point-blank range with bomber
with smile on my face.
The sun was going down now,
even from our vantage point up
there at twenty-five thousand, where
Holloway and I were patrolling. We
called to the other ships to land,
and as we saw them go into the
Lufbery circle and the rat-race that
fighter pilots like to land from, Hol-
loway rolled over and dove straight
for the ground. ! started to roll
with him-then turned back for one
more look at the setting sun. Down
on the earth, to those earthbound
creatures, the sun was down. There
the shadows of the approaching
night covered the ground, but up
here I could see above the noun
tains, and the sun still shone on my
fighter. I pulled almost straight up
in the steep climb that like to make
/ Lafora driyipo hopna and ln0kpI