The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-03-01
Col. Robert I.ScOff

must have been six-feet-two, a fine
looking man. He worked religious
ly with the refugees and soldiers,
always efficient, always trying to
send those out who should have
gone. I can see him now, standing
there in his tattered uniform, with
his turban perfectly placed on his
dark head, his beard waving in the
wind from the idling propellers. He
would patiently herd the passengers
into the transport, sometimes hold
ing hysterical people back physical
ly, and in more crucial times pull
ing his pistol, but never becoming
fiustered or excited. I sometimes
think he was the greatest soldier I
have ever seen. Day after day, as
the Japs moved North and ever clos
er to Myitkyina, he would be there.
doing his thankless job.
When the end came, and I knew
that the field would be taken in the
next few hours, went to him and
explained the situation. / found,
however, that he knew more about
1t than I knew myself. The refugees
had told him, he said, and he knew
this was the last day we could land
there. So I asked him to get aboard
my ship and leave for India; after
all, he was an officer and could best
be used when once again the British
entered Burma.
The Sikh officer refused with ma
jestic pride. His orders had been
to stay there and supervise the evac-
uation of those refugees, and he con-
sidered that trust sacred. We had
to leave him, and when I last saw
him he was herding the ever-increas-
ing numbers of stricken people on
to the North, towards Fort Hertz and
the blind valley that led inevitably
to the impossible mountains towards
Tibet. guess the Japs finally got
him. But know how he must have
died, with that pistol in his hand,
and finally just the knife-and ]
know that several Japs died be-
fore they killed him.
The Japs strafed Myitkyina the
next day with heavy force and got
two British transports that were on
the ground. We had luckily decided
that with the Japs eighteen miles to
the South we could not risk our
few planes, for they were needed
for the run into China. From then
on Myitkyina was an enemy-occu-
pied field, but / managed later on
to give it lots of hell with a fighter,
and fighter can dish it out.
The winds from the Indian Ocean
grew stronger, and the monsoon sea-
son began. And oh boy, the rains
came! The clouds built up SO black
and high and thick that you could
no longer go around them or over
them-you had to just get on instTu-
ments and bore through. In some
ways, though, it was relief-for
there in the safety of Gods ele-
ments the Japs couldn't bother our
unarmed ships. Many times heard
the remark that there was always
something good in verything-even
bad weather. I can hear still some
of those pilots gripping, saying they
never thought the day would come
when they'd be out looking for bad
weather. But it was the truth. With
the Jap fighter ships all over Burma
now, it was comforting to know that
there were rain clouds to dodge into
with the transports.
On April 26, the AVG finally had
to leave Lowing, due to the failure
of the air-warning net to the South.
They moved on back to Paoshan by
Mengshih, and finally to Running.
One day about that time went over
to see General Chennault, for had
question / wanted to ask him
one that I'd carried on my mind
ever since I'd been shanghaied off
the dream mission" still wanted
to fight. Though this Ferry Com