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

ables," we knew that we had not let
one Jap escape from the December
26th attempted bombing of Yeching.
| felt so good I wanted to radio the
General. but I waited until we
checked up on those who were miss
ing, so that could go and tell him
In person.
Our victory had not been without
loss. Lieutenant Couch, who had
led the rear attack on the bombers,
had failed to return. His wing man
had seen him pulling up over the tail
of the bomber formation after shoot
ing down one of the Japs: but they
had concentrated their fire on him
and had shot him down in flames No
one knew whether or not the Caro-
lima pilot had gotten out. In the
speed with which that attack had
moved you didn't have time to see
parachutes opening.
Another pilot, Lieutenant Mooney,
had been seen to shoot one bomber
down, and then, in another head-on
attack, had either collided with an
other of the enemy or had exploded
it so close to his own ship that the
observing pilot had not been able to
see MONEYS P-40 again.
Sending out the usual search par
ties, took off into a setting sun for
Running. My heart was heavy with
the loss of two fine pilots, but there
was still hope that they had gotten
out. And at the same time my
spirits were singing with victory.
landed at headquarters in the
dark and went to the Generals
house. Over the rough road that led
there, my mind was on the speedy
happenings since had driven out to
the ship that morning. Then drove
past the guard at the gate. who
smiled and yelled, AVG - ding
hao." | called a cheerful greeting to
him, for everything was good now.
There was full moon rising In the
sky-a bombing moon," the Chi
nese call it--and the cedar trees
around the house that the Gissimo
had built for the General were cast
ing long shadows in its light.
/ tossed my flying gear on the
bed in my room and hurried to the
General. saw "Gunboat" the
houseboy coming out of the Gen.
erals corner room. He said softly,
General still feel pretty bad" I
went in.
General Chennault was in bed,
propped up by pillows. He glanced
up from a map and looked at me.
"Well, Scotty," he said, 81 hear
there was a fight over Yeching this
afternoon and see blood on your
face, SO | know you made contact.
What happened?"
Trying to look real stern. told
the General that nineteen Japs had
come in, just as he said they would,
at the same time as the day be-
fore-only this time we were higher
than they and were waiting for
them. General" l said, with a
tremor of pride in my voice, 1--WE
shot 'em all down."
The General was looking more like
a well man every moment. He asked
about our losses and I told him about
the two missing pilots. He thought
a minute, then started to get up.
'Scotty, if you'll look over behind
you in that pretty box, you'll find a
bottle of Haig & Haig, pinch bottle,
that the Soong sisters sent US for
Christmas. We're going to open that
and celebrate"
We were celebrating when Doctor
Tom Gentry came back and be-
gan to ask the General why he
wasn't in bed with his fever. The
General looked so happy, guess,
that Doctor took his temperature
again. Then he gave me funny
look. Normal" he said Some
times think if you all shot down a
few Japs every day, the General
would even get to where he could
hear as well as he could when he
was a boy in louisiana"
The General filed his glass again
and handed me the bottle. Then he
raised the glass at me and said,
"Howl" We drank to the victory of
the afternoon.
Early next day / went over again
with Holloway, just in case the Jap
came again. We learned that the
victory had not been without cost
Lieutenant Mooney had been found
dead, close to the wrecks of two
burned airplanes-a Mitsubishi Jap
anese bomber and his P-40. We
now knew from the different sto-
ries of pilot witnesses that he had
gone down on the tail of one Japa-
nese bomber against the whitening
fire Of several planes. He had shot
one down, but had evidently been
hit badly himself, for his plane was
smoking. Moneys speed had car
ried' him on past the enemy forma-
ton, and he had come back for a
head-on run against a single plane
after the formation had been bro
ken. They had either flown togeth-
er because of MONEYS determina-
ton to keep coming until be shot the
Jap down, or Mooney had been badly
hit. The opinion of two of the wit
nesses was that he had flown his
fighter into the Jap. Perhaps when
the chips were down, others besides
the Japanese could take just one
more enemy with them when the end
was near.
We rolled Lieutenant Mooney in
his chute and placed him aboard
for