The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-06-25


 But behind that commonplace news is thrilling story of pains taking, back breaking pioneering.
 Here are some things few peo- pie know about the Air Transport Commando: Most used air route in the world is not between Wash ington and New York, not be- tween New York and Chicago, but over the Hump" between China and India Traffic over this worlds highest mountain range, the Timalayas, is so heavy that planes travel at different al- titudes so there will be no col lisions. One plane will have orders to fly at 22O0O feet, another at 23,000 and so on. Three or four different air routes are used across the Hump, also to avoid collisions.
 Next most heavily used air route Is across the North Atlantic. The ATC sends plane across the At lantic every 58 seconds. That's about as fast as traffic moves on the Pennsylvania RR between York and Philadelphia, busiest rail line in the world The ATC is now flying returning troops across the Atlantic at rate of 50,000 per month :. For years, ATC pilots have been briefed on how to land on the difficult air. ports of Greenland, Iceland or China. Now the ATC has the tremendous thrill of briefing pi- lots on arriving at home ports Boston, Portland, Long Island .. Pilots say that no briefing was ever more welcome.
 More than 220, 1000 wounded men have been carried in ATC planes away from the battle front. Dur ing the early stages of Okinawa fighting, planes swooped down on makeshift runways, taxied up to ambulances, took off right under the noses of Jap guns. Stretch CTS were loaded aboard while the planes refueled One big ATC job has been getting crashed fliers out of the Himalayas. Amazing fact is that 75 per cent are saved Lieut.. Gen. Har- old George, boss of the ATC, re- alized in advance that crashes would be heavy over the Hump, so men were given special train ing to live in the jungles. They were even taken to jungle out posts to get familiar with the jungle they hopped Every plane flying the Hump has small tin chest with its own par achute) containing medicine, snake-bite antidote, water puri- fer, concentrated food, signal flares, mirrors, mosquito nets, etc. This chest is kept near the planes door. If the crew has to jump, the chest is kicked out before the last man leaves the plane un the jungle, crews are taught to stay where they are until sighted by rescue planes which signal in- structions as to where they can be picked up Natives are usually friendly and the chances of getting rescued from the jun gle are far better than if a flier drops over the desert or in the sea.
 The Japs shot down many ATC planes early in the war by paint ing their DC-4's with U. S. insig- mia Flying up close, the Japs waited until they had perfect tar gets, then fired U. s. planes had to be repainted Now, however, the Japs have been pushed back a considerable dis tance from the Hump Early In the war, Roosevelt ordered the Army to fly 10000 tons per month over the Hump to Chiang Kali shek. Some brass hats threw up their hands. said this was impos- sible ATC, however, met the schedule: today is flying 50,000 tons per month over the Hump.
 Before Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt ordered special fighter planes
 rushed to the British in Egypt where Rommel had General Montgomery's back to the wall. ,x,hnA AAlfA~-