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Burma March 1944 – Four-Ship Victory Record

17 Dec 09

Paul and P-40 (Esther was his mother)

At 1000 on 26 Mar 44, Paul wrote

The electrifying cry of scramble came over. We dashed to our ships, took off, circled our position for about 30 minutes, and then were told to “pancake.” False alarm.

On the morning of 27 Mar, 80th FG fighters intercepted a “large force of Jap bombers and escorting Zeros” on the way to bomb Lido. Paul wrote:

I didn’t get there soon enough to have some fun, too, but four of our pilots who were returning from a  mission ran into them and each got two confirmed bombers plus one probable.

That proved to be a four-ship record for the CBI Theater. Paul listed the successful 90th FS fighter pilots in his diary:

  • Capt Ward
  • 1Lt Patton
  • 2Lt Lyon
  • Flight Officer Hammer

In total, the group’s three squadrons recorded 13 bombers and 13 fighters destroyed, two bombers and two fighters claimed as probables, and two fighters damaged. The 89th lost two P-51s and one P-40.

Paul noted that “Marshall, the P-40 pilot, bailed out safely.”

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Pearl Harbor Remembered – 7 Dec 1943

7 Dec 09

Shortly after arriving at his squadron’s base at Teok, Assam,  in the CBI Theater, Paul found himself sitting alert and waiting for his first real combat mission. In his diary on 7 Dec 1943, he wrote:

Today I am on alert again, and it is two years ago today that Pearl Harbor was attacked. Sure is a difference now in my status, for two years ago today I was a civilian sitting in “Claire and Ethel’s” drinking beer and playing cards when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Now I am in Upper Assam – the wettest spot on Earth – waiting for an alert to fight in the sky. I certainly hope and pray we shall not have to witness another infamous anniversary while engaged in war.

He did log his first combat sortie four days later, flying over The Hump to Japanese bases, but they found nothing to attack other than one steam locomotive. He wrote:

We expected fighter opposition, as we went deep into their territory, but the whole trip – over 3 hours – was entirely uneventful. I’d sure hate to have to bail out in that country which we flew over. Nothing but jungle and mountains. Sure would be a tough proposition to walk out, for not only does it offer topographical obstacles, but Jap bases are everywhere.

In honor of those young men and women who served in combat theaters around the world following the “day that will live in infamy” let us all honor Pearl Harbor Day today. And, while we’re giving thanks for their sacrifices in defense of our liberties, don’t forget to say a prayer for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines serving in equally difficult and remote areas today to protect this great land that God has continued to see fit to preserve.

We must never resist the impulse to indolence and complacency, for that is a sure route to loss of our hard-won freedoms.

“It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.”
John Philpot Curran
Speech upon the Right of Election (1790)

Paul with P-40 during in-theater training in India

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Popping Corn With a Blowtorch

3 Dec 09

On 28 Feb 1944, Paul wrote to his wife that he’d received a package from his sister Lorrayne that, among other items, included some unpopped corn, popcorn being on of his favorite snacks. He told Bunny, “I’m waiting for just the right evening when I can get all cozy and just settle down and read and eat warm pop-corn.”

A week later, he and some of his squadron mates decided to pop some corn:

The only way we could manage it was with a blow torch and mess kit, but we finally did get it popped — and it tasted really ‘stateside.’ The mosquitoes descend upon us in clouds after dark, but we hardly bother to shoo them away now, for there are so damn many and we have resigned our fate to them — malaria or not. I got clumsy during the popping process, and burned hell out of my fingers, so this writing is rather slow and painful. I have two lovely large blisters to show for my efforts, and they just clear my pen, so guess I will manage OK.

Well, as Paul wrote often in both his diary and his letters home, it was a Rough War!

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