The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-02-15

duty. He has been told ne Is TOO olu
for combat flying. and after December 2.
1941, he begins writing Generals all over
the country for a chance to fly fighter
plane.
CHAPTER vi: Scott solos q Flying
Fortress for the first time and makes
twenty practice landings. He leaves for
India from Florida point.
CHAPTER VII: Easter Sunday in Az
rfca. They fly along the Arabian coast
and land at Karachi. India. covering
2.00o miles In eight days.
CHAPTER VII
Well, the Air Base General had
to ask us to carry out the mission,
and to ease the monotony we were
glad to comply. Taking the bomb
bay tanks from the ship, we loaded
with Acknowledgment bombs and
off we went, eight hundred miles
into the Arabian Sea, looking for a
Jap naval force composed of three
warships, FIVE destroyers, five cruis-
ers, and two aircraft carriers-with
our one bomber. Due to the low
weather we had to fly beneath the
cloud base at seven thousand feet.
Reaching our patrol area, we
searched until it was necessary to
return to base for fuel. have Of
ten wondered what we would have
done had We had the fortune or
misfortune to find that task force-1f
it existed. After all, from seven
thousand feet we could have done
very little damage with a single
ship. Somehow I'm glad we did
not engage the enemy-I always
hated to be a clay pigeon, and
though the future looked dark, there
were interesting days ahead.
Slowly, though, through days in
which some of the others took their
ships to bomb Rangoon and the
Andaman Islands, and finally when
Haynes returned from Delhi, the
realization sank in that our mission
was cancelled. I have never seen
thirteen crews of bombers carrying
so many broken hearts. Morale
dropped like a stone. On April Il,
when the base took our ships,
think we would have been justified
in getting sinking drunk.
New orders came for Colonel
Haynes and most of us in the i'll
fated dream mission" to report to
a remote base in eastern Assam, on
the India-Burma border, to run the
A. B. c. Ferrying Command. This
Assam-Burma-China transport COM
mand was for the purpose of carry
ing supplies to China and Burma,
to make up as much as possible for
the fall of the Burma road.
When Colonel Haynes and / ar
rived in Assam we both considered
ourselves "shanghaied." could tell.
as we faced each other across the
breakfast table that first morning,
that we both knew that things were
going to be bad. Our status had
changed from participating in what
we considered the greatest mis-
sion in the world" to the insight
icant task of running ferry COM
mand from India to Burma. Once
again combat duty seemed far
away.
All around us now were the tea
gardens of Assam. Our landing field
was an RAF' base. Our homes were
mud and bamboo huts called "bash-
as" Through the jungle that sur
rounded our base, wild animals
roamed; every night we could hear
the jackals scream. We knew that
cobras were everywhere. On flights
over the Brahmaputra River, |
would see rhinos, elephants and 9TH
er animals which made me realize
vividly that we were far from civili-
zation.
Our base was situated in a horse
shoe formed by the Himalaya Noun
tains to the North and West and by
the Naga Hills to the East and
Southwest. The altitude of our field
was 600 feet above sea level, and
all around us in three directions
rose mountains-the lower Himalay-
as being 25,500 feet, just $50 miles
to the North. These great peaks
reached their ceiling, of course, at
Mt. Everest, 29,002 feet above sea
level-the highest mountain in the
world. This was 800 miles from us.
Our first job was to begin the
construction of other fields in the
area-this was to permit us to have
more than one base from which to
work. For our job was that of being
ferry pilots for both the Chinese
Army and General Chennault's AVG
down in Burma. We were to car
~ high octane gas, ammunition, and
food into Burma, and later into Chi
ma. We were soon to find ourselves
returning from Burma with our
ships completely filed and overflow
ing with wounded British soldiers.
Col. c. v. Haynes was boss; he
was Commanding Officer of the A.
B. c. Ferrying Command, and
was his Executive Officer.
We began our work the day after
we arrived in Assam. This was
April 2l. We had thirteen trans