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Christmas in the CBI

29 Dec 09

Paul spent his first Christmas overseas in 1943.

Christmas Day – 1943 – IN ASSAM!

It’s again Christmas Day – that exciting day which, for children, approaches too slowly. But this year it is but another day to me. Here in the jungle of Assam the weather is sultry and hot – men are walking around and working in shorts…and sweating – the jungle noises are a steady drone – and to top this off – I am on duty! So for me it is as I already said – just another day. Then too I have received no Xmas presents as yet – in fact I have received but eight letters in the past two months.

Christmas Eve the following year (1944, at Tingkawk Sakan in central Burma with its “4000-foot gravel runway surrounded by 200-foot tall teak trees”) was a bit more rowdy.

Last year at this time, I was in Teok, Assam, and not in the Burma jungle. Smitty (my roommate) and I decided to throw a flight party. We had three cases of beer saved and three quarts of gin. We invited our 10 flight members in and started drinking and shooting the breeze. One by one, others arrived – most with more “spirits.” Soon, everyone was whoppin’ drunk. Along about 11 o’clock, Smitty, who hails from Texas, declared, “I wanna fight and I don’t care who.” and commenced swinging. At first, we all got a big kick out of it – ‘till he finally connected on “Nipper” Weston’s jaw – and a Connecticut Yankee. That did it!! Soon, everyone was swinging on everyone else. Booze was spilled all over, table was smashed, and the side of my tent torn out. Boy, what a mess. Oh yes – Merry Xmas!

Paul's 1944 Christmas card to his wife Joyce

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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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