The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-05-03
W.Nu. RELEASE

II they were going to cut him up,
until he remembered the one word
of Chinese that he'd picked UP. He
yelled this-one that sounded like
"Merugay, which means "Ameri-
can" And when they read the Chi
nese sign that each OF us carried on
the back of his flying suit, which
asks aid and protection for the
American who has come to help
China fight, they realized who he
was. Just the man who had shot
down the three enemy ships. And
from then on he was the hero of the
town.
Johnny Alison had a couple of
burns on his hands and legs where
some bits of the Japs' explosive bull
lets had hit him. He'd been slightly
cut on the forehead when, on land
ing in the river, his head had hit
the heavy metal of the gun-sight.
But the scar that would leave would
be a common one after the war, for
every fighter pilot flies along with
his head just inches behind that
hunk OF steel that contains the lights
and prisms of the modern gun
sights. Just the slightest accident
and 1t is out there to split your head.
/ asked Johnny why in hell he
went so close to the bomber forma-
ton, and he grinned and said, ST
was scared I'd miss one of them"
Our salvage crew worked and
worked at the job of raising the P-40
from the bottom of the Siang-Kiang.
But with the fourteen-foot depth and
the swift current, they had more
than modern engineering with the
limitations of our floating equipment
could accomplish. Under Captain
Observation-Disclosures and in our
Army-they fioated barges out to
the spot and tried to tow ii ashore
with lines. Then they lowered steel
drums, tied them to the ship, tried
to pump the water from the sub
merged drums and thus float the
P-4O-but everything failed.
During all the work of the Amer
leans with windlass and block-and-
tackle, the Chinese villagers, who
had offered their services long be-
fore, smiled and stood by. We asked
ourselves: What in hell could the
Chinese coolies and rivermen do if
we, with our general knowledge and
advanced civilization, couldn't raise
the ship? We went on and failed
for three days, and then to the per-
slstent Chinese we said, "Okay. 90
ahead"
We watched them float raft after
raft of long thick bamboo poles to
the buoy that now marked the SPOT
where Johnny's fighter had sunk.
Mentally we set down the raising
OF the ship as impossible and got
ready to mark it off the list. But
the Chinese went on cheerfully with
their work. / saw them pull them
selves down into the river with
ropes tied to the fighter, taking with
them an eighteen-foot length of bam-
boo. They would slide this under
the wing of the ship and lash il into
place with grass rope. Hundreds of
times they did this, until a perfect
mat OF bamboo was under the entire
wing of the little P-40. Then thew
lashed the mat to the fuselage and
started another row under the wing.
Through it all we smiled at the vast
ed effort. and ! heard men say, "Oh
well, there are lots of Chinese any
way. Let them work."
But towards the second days
close, I began to wonder, and that
evening as darkness settled over the
river | went out to watch their tire.
less labor. Suddenly there was a
movement among the rivermen to
tighten the four cables that tied the
fighter to the barge, and saw the
canopy and the prop of Johnny's
tighter ship rise above the surface of
the river. Involuntarily | cheered,
and ] felt lump in my throat as
If l had swallowed something; as
/ tried to talk to the officer with
me | felt my lip tremble with emo
ton. But the Chinese never cheered
or got excited; they remained as
stoical as ever. They seemed to
know that they were going to be sue
cessful, and had merely been wait
ing for the crazy Americans to quit
playing around with all the strange
gadgets.
They had fioated the 9100 pounds
of P-40, and now they towed it to
shore. Our salvage crew put the
wheels down in the water, and with
the aid of about a hundred coolies
the ship was pulled up the river
bank and then out to the field We
counted eleven bullet holes through
the engine and in the cockpit Next
day the ground crews began the
work of repair. Days had to pass
before an engine from another dam
aged fighter could be installed, and
more time had to go by before
we got it completely worked over.
But in the end it flew again in COM
bat against the Japanese-thanks to
the bravery of a gallant officer, the
labor of good mechanics, and the
answering patience and devotion of
those brave Chinese coolies and riv-
ermen who had never heard of the
word impossible.
When I first went to China I think
I imagined in my short stay that |
would gradually change the simple
Chinese. used to rant and rave
about this and that, and try to show
the houseboys better and more eff
ficient ways to do things. But they
never changed. and finally I real
lied that they were changing me.
Now in raising this ship they had
used method three thousand years
old. have read since how they had
employed it in Burma, long years