Chapter 12

“Thirty days of rest and recreation in Sydney, Australia, passed by like the snap of your fingers. Strangely, the only water I wanted to be near was a swimming pool, not even close to the ocean. Sydney seemed like a world away from the war, and I made the most of my time off. I think I ate steak almost every dinner, along with a good-tasting wine.

“Preparing to fly back, we packed every empty space with bottles of Aussie beer or liquor. The driver of a large truck came to us, and to my amazement, the fuel tanks marked XXX were filled with a different kind of fuel, namely beer. Major Gise said it was a trick he learned from the Brits. It was different to hear the glass bottles clinking together from the buffeting of the winds flying home. Major Gise kidded us not to switch to the wrong fuel tank, as he doubted our Corsairs could fly by burning beer. I imagine a few of us were tempted to find out if their plane could.”

“We arrived for our second tour of combat duty from 10 May to 18 June. A lot had been accomplished at the airfield while we were gone. New interlocking matting had been placed on the runway to eliminate dust and stones that could be sucked into the superchargers. Our tents were replaced with Quonset huts, and we even had some games and movies. Even the food tasted better.”

“The Commanding Officer stood us down, and we thanked the ground crew for their incredibly hard work with a proper drunk. It was impossible to find chunks of ice in such hot weather. One of the ground crew placed several of the XXX tanks in a natural stream to help keep them cooler and ran a hose to another tank for pouring.”

“One thing I noted in my months and years during the war was the almost daily drinking of hard liquor by the pilots. Some had the fatalist mentality that their next mission would be their last, and for some, it was. Others thought having a little alcohol in their system might help prevent them from getting malaria or disentsry. It didn’t.”

“We had little time to enjoy any down time, and the month of May was spent doing our normal duties of Combat Air Patrols, providing cover for or escorting task forces, conducting photo missions, scrambling to intercept enemy planes, and performing fighter sweeps. We averaged close to thirty hours of flying time each.”

“On the 13th, we and planes from VMF 112 encountered twenty Zeros, and Ken Walsh shot down two along with the three on the 1st of April, becoming the first ace in the 124th and the first ace flying a Corsair. That day was also the darkest of all the days for us. Our Commanding Officer, Major Gise, was killed in action.”

“Major Gise led fifteen of us on an intercept mission, where we met the enemy in a fierce battle over the Russell Islands. My own opinion is that Major Gise’s plane must have been hit in the radio or the antenna because we couldn’t hear him like we normally tell each other about enemy planes in a dog fight.”

“I know that he was such an excellent pilot that it would have likely taken more than one Zero to take him down, or perhaps a lucky shot took out his engine. There was no impact fire on Russell Island, so he must have splashed in and been unable to survive. I lost too many friends to count, but his death and the loss of an excellent pilot, officer, and friend affected me for some time.”

“We had a job to do, and Captain Brewer, the Executive Officer, was appointed temporary Commander. June was another month of doing much the same as in May plus bringing in new Corsairs. Many of the pilots had success, with Ken Walsh downing more planes and Lieutenants Crowe, Finn, and Taylor close to becoming aces. I added two to my totals, becoming an ace several times over. Helen sure took a beating with numerous bullet holes in her, part of her rudder shot off, and her right aileron in splinters because they’re made of wood.”

“In late June, we had nine new officers assigned to us, including a new Commanding Officer, Major Pace. He only stayed with us for two weeks, then was moved onto command VMF 214 and was later killed in action in August.”

“The first week of July was spent bringing in new Corsairs, with one designated to replace my Helen. I explained the importance of keeping her to Captain Brewer and showed him the writing a woman named Helen had written inside the cockpit. He allowed me to keep her, and the ground crew said they’d inspect her and make any modifications they could for me. We finished off the week by flying in a DC-3 on leave to Sydney. I guess this time we weren’t allowed to fly our Corsairs to Australia, likely because we’d bring back more booze. While on leave, we received a new Commanding Officer, Major Bill Millington.”