The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-01-18

and my little girl. Here, in this
wonderful place, could possibly
have lived out the war, behind a
good safe desk at Victorville or
some other training field. By my
love of adventure, by my stubborn
nature, had talked myself out of
this soft and wonderful job of stay
ing home with my family. ! was
about to leave that girl had driven
all those thousands of miles to see
for even ten minutes Tears
came to my eyes-I knew I had
been fool.
For hours lay awake. And then,
In the darkness, I think ! saw the
other side. Suppose I called that
officer who had telephoned me from
Washington. Suppose called and
told him that had hed-that I had
never flown a Flying Fortress. I
could easily get out of this mission
but the thought was one that I
couldn't entertain even for second.
For now the seriousness of war had
gradually come to me. Unless men
Like mysef--thousands and millions
of them-left these wonderful lux
uries in this great land of America
we could lose it all forever. / loved
these two with all my heart, but
the only way in all the world to
keep them living in the clean world
they were accustomed to was to
steel myself to the pain of parting
with them for months or years-or
even forever. The actuality of war,
grim war, had come. knew then
that the theoretical word "Democ-
racy" was not what we were to fight
for. knew it was for no party, no
race, creed, or color. We were go
ing to fight, and many of us were to
die, for just what had here-my
wife and family. To me. they were
all that was real, they were all
that could understand. To me,
they were America.
Next day we got the household
goods packed. We piled on an east
bound train and left California. That
ride for me was the saddest thing
that has ever happened. / would
look at those two and see that my
wife was thinking my own thought;
even the little girl seemed to sense
that all was not well. At Memphis,
! almost casually bade them good
by, and we parted. But as watched
their train disappear down the track
] knew that part of my life was
gone. My world was grim.
Reaching my assembly point for
instructions, I found that ! was re-
porting to Col. Caleb V. Haynes, one
of the greatest of big-ship pilots
the pilot in our Air Force who had
devoted much of his life to making
the four-engine bomber the weapon
that it is today. The entire group
of officers and men made quite
! gathering I learned that they were
all picked men, and that they had
volunteered and almost fought for
,laces on the crews of the For
tesses. And as heard the expla-
alton of the flight from Colonel
agnes I saw the reason for their
xcitement.
This was a dream mission"-one
hat was million kinds of adven-
.ure rolled into one.
We were to fly thirteen four-engine
bombers - one BOA and twelve
BITE E's-to Asia. There we were
/ to bomb up" the ships after we
had gone as far East as we possibly
could, and then were to bomb OBJ
ectives in Japan. Our orders read
hat we were to coordinate our at
.ack from the West with another at
tack that was coming from the East.
The sadness that had been with
me since leaving my family van
ished. Once again ! saw the war in
a spirit of adventure. Here was
what any soldier might have prayed
for-here was what the American
public had been clamoring for dur
ing the months since Pearl Harbor.
| was fortunate to be one of the pi-
lots; it almost made up for my
failure to finally get into single
scatter fighter ships again-almost,
but not quite.
That night we talked things over
and met each other. and next morn
ing we left for Washington, with our
newly drawn equipment. Our planes
were in Florida, being made ready
for eoY,obat b1t we were Obliged TO