The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-02-22

III 6I1SWGAS nJ pd1AGAs
With the passing days we began
to get reports from the British
agents near Homalin that Jap planes
were patroling the sector. From then
on, Joplin or Colonel Haynes would
fly the food transport and I'd es-
cort them with my lone Pas. I've
often laughed since then at my ego.
For what in hell could I have done
with one little fighter-sans self-seal-.
ing tanks, sans big guns, sans
brains? guess I actually thought
then that il nine of eighteen little
old Japs jumped on me that I'd
shoot down that half of them at
least, and the other half would run.
Right soon I was to learn that
would have been shot down pretty
fast. Such is the valor of ignorance.
AS the days stretched into weeks
and no news came of General Still
wells party, we just dropped bags
of rice and medicines to all parties,
whether they were led by a Gen.
eral or by British sergeant. On
my single-ship escort trips ! noted
that burning barges were floating
down the Chindwin, South of Tamu.
One afternoon I saw four big river
boats burning at the docks of the
town where the Manipur Road be-
gan. I reported this to the British.
Then, about three weeks from the
day we had flown down to get the
staff out of Shwebo, met General
Stilwell and his tired group at the
little Tinsukia railroad station. I
told him that practically all the Air
Corps officers in Asia were waiting
for him outside.
That night, as we gathered at tea
planter Josh Reynolds house, we
had the greatest gathering of Gen.
erals stars that all Assam had ever
seen. There was Wavell, Alexander
who made on that occasion the
classic statement: 1.-The situation in
Burma is very confused"-Brereton,
Maiden, Bissell, Stilwell, Hearne and
Siebert. Just about everyone ex-
cept General Chennault, and he was
very busy getting the AVG out of
Lowing and up to Paoshan. Burma
had at last fallen.
The evacuation of these Chinese
armies from Burma to India and
China now gave us more adventures
in the A. B. c. Ferrying Command.
They were scattered all over north
ern Burma, from West of Myitkyina,
North to Shimbyang and Putao. 1t
was our job now to drop rice, salt,
and medicines to these thousands of
starving soldiers. remember that
as | first saw Burma il used to look
to me like the greatest hunting coun-
try in all the world, completely wild
and unspoiled. And it was just that
but there was nothing to hunt, for
evidently there wasn't anything for
even the animals to eat.
We'd fill a smaller burlap bag
with rice or salt and sew that into
another bag twice the size of the
first. When these were dropped from
an airplane, the inner bag broke
but the rice was saved by the second
bag. All we had to do was to fly
through the monsoon rains of Bur-
ma, dodge the mountains, and find
the places to drop the food to the
waiting Chinese. Then, lodging the
jungle trees, we'd go down as low
as We dared and shove the bags out
the door. We learned to hit the tar
gets pretty accurately, and by the
way the soldiers went after the
sacks of food they were plenty hun
cry.
Once when it was clear enough to
see the surrounding country, ! was
aware Of strange sight. We'd been
dropping rice at Shimbyang when !
saw some villages. and there again
] noticed something that / realized
now I'd been seeing through all the
Burmese towns-white cattle, the
bullocks of the East. It started me
to thinking: How could people starve
when there were hundreds and thou
sands of cattle in northern Burma?
That afternoon I got to talking
over the food situation with one of
the best of the ferry pilots, Capt.
John Payne. He said he'd looked
the field over at Putao-or Fort
Hertz, as the British called it-and
although it had been condemned
by the British for the landing of
aircraft, he could land a transport
on the short runway. The entire
length of that field was slightly less
than one thousand feet, and If any
other pilot than Joplin or Payne had
made that statement I would have
ignored the offer; but / knew that
Payne knew what he was talking
about.
We loaded on 1900 pounds of rice
to land at Fort Hertz and went over
the Naga Hills to Burma. AS I sat
there being Long John Payne's CO.
pilot, my thoughts were on this hap
py-go-lucky flyer. He had been an
Eastern Airlines pilot for nine years
before coming into the Air Corps.
As he said, he'd let down into At
lanta so many times in the smoke
and fog that the bad weather of
Burma didn't worry him much.
When Johnny first joined the ferry
command he came into prominence
by originating saying that to US
exemplified our feelings about the
whole affair in Burma. Johnny had
said, eff at first you don't succeed,
give up, for no one in this country
gives a damn anyway"
We got over Fort Hertz pretty
quickly and circled the little cleared
place on top of a hill. The single
runway, if you could call it that,
was just nine hundred feet long.
There were tracks where ships had
landed, but we found later that they