The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-08-16

j 0du nuTT1eO DaCk 10 the u6lu DS~
fore taking off for Running with
my report on the efficiency Of the
warning net, and was taking pic
lures of some little mongol-appear-
| ing Miaows who were holding my
geese aloft-when we had an air
raid alert. There was heavy en-
gine-noise from the reporting sta
tions over towards Burma. We
tossed the eighteen geese into the
/ baggage compartment, winding
their necks around among the con-
| duits of the radio so that the cargo
wouldn't shift, and took off for Kun
ming. Then as heard more reports
from the Southwest, I turned South,
| joined the other fighters on patrol,
and looked for the enemy. In about
forty-five minutes we spread out to
cover more territory, and I caught
sight of two enemy planes-Zeros /
thought, at first sight. / called to
the others and attacked. Even as I
approached the Japs I knew they
were too slow and too large for
Zeros. Then I saw that they were
| single-engine reconnaissance-bomb-
ers. caught the rear one and
gave it a short burst, keeping my
eye on the other. The first one went
down with most of one wing gone.
The next ! chased down every val
ley on the Mekong, getting in sew
eral good shots, but I never did see
him go down or crash. From the
evidence Of the thin trail of smoke
that ! last saw coming from it as !
dove and circled to look around
again, I claimed 1t as probable.
The first one I had confirmed as a
certain" The others In our patrol
engaged four other planes and prob
ably shot down two of them. The
General had been correct as usual
the Japs were keeping the end of
the ferry route under close surveil-
lance.
When ! told the General about my
victory, which had been my twelfth
confirmed enemy ship, and told him
about the geese in the baggage COM
| partment, he said he didn't know
whether to congratulate me for the
meat or for the Japs-at that time of
the year Christmas dinner was more
important. AS for myself, I told
him. ] hadn't worried so much about
the Japs' shooting me down as |
had about their getting a lucky burst
through my fuselage and running all
that good meat with their explosive
bullets. Besides, in the maneuvers
of combat, If the necks of all those
geese had jammed the controls and
made me spin in. the Chinese who
found me would have talked a long
time about the pilot whom they'd
found dead with feathers all over
him.
Christmas night. while we were
enjoying the geese, George Hazelett
came In with his Squadron to report
that the Japs had bombed our base
near Lake Yeching with eighteen
ships on that afternoon of Christmas
Day, and the first warning the field
had was the sight of the enemy
bombers In the clear blue Yunnan
sky. Luckily the bombing had
missed the field and no ships were
damaged, but many Chinese in the
village had been killed. Definite
ly the warning net in western Yum
nan made the operation of the
Transport Command at Yeching
hazardous. I could tell by the Gen.
erals face that he had some plans
he would tell me about in private.
The General had been sick with a
cold over Christmas and had e fe-
yer that night. when he told me
what he had to do at Yeching. At
dawn the next morning-December
26th in China, but actually Christ
mas Day in America took off with
full instructions. When left, the
Doctor told me General Chennault
was running a temperature of l03.
All OF us were worried about him,
and knew that the defeats on Christ
mas Day hadn't helped his spirits.
As I flew West towards Yeching,
las miles away. in the half light I
saw the coolies carrying drums Of
gasoline on wheelbarrows up the
Burma Road. Some of these knew
would go on through Running to
Chungking, 800 miles away by air.
Trundling these crude wooden
wheeled vehicles of the ages gone
by, these patient workers would re-
quire seventy days Of constant eff
fort, at their dogged trot, to reach
the capital at Chungking. The two
wheeled Peking carts with three
drums would take a shorter time
"A days. / saw cooie boys plowing
in the rice paddles halfway UP the
sides of the mountains-paddies built
like steps from the top of the hill to
the valley, SO that the irrigation wa
ter could be used over and over. I
laughed as saw the ancient means
Of cultivation-the boy, standing with
his feet on the wooden scraper, was
using his own weight to make it
scratch tse mud. but was holding on
to the water buffalo, with his hand
gripping the tail of the ponderous
animal.
Again I found myself plying these
earthbound creatures. I said to my
SELF. when you reach the end OF
that paddy, I'll be many miles from
here" | suppose get arrogant like
that because I'm sitting up there
with six good American fifty-calibre
guns In front of me charged and
ready. and off on a mission bound to
be exciting. Il didn't matter now
that some other day might be let
ting down somewhere around there
In bad weather, with night coming on
j nr NTH nv fuel r,ss,rinn lnrr. raichf