UC-64C Norseman Drawing by Merle Olmsted
First Christmas in England
This story begins at Raydon Wood Air Base, which was located about 15 miles west of Coelchester, England, where our enemy was tons of mud. The 357th Fighter Group arrived on November 1943, and a Christmas party was underway on Christmas Eve.
Plenty of local maidens joined us in dancing, eating, drinking, etc. and celebrating the festive occasion. The 363rd Fighter Squadron had a new Commanding Officer named Joe Giltner. I told Joe this was too good a party to shut down, just because it was time to close the Officer’s Club, and I had a jug of Hooch in my quarters, so we should transfer the party to the pilot’s shack on the flight line. Joe being a fine Christian, thought this was a splendid idea, agreeing to meet at the flight line, but said “DON’T TAKE MY JEEP”. So I went right out the door, got the first jeep that would start, and with some blond set course for my quarters Didn’t make the first turn – scattered jeep and blond all over the place. Got the babe to the trucks going to Coelchester and thanked her for a pleasant evening. About then I scrubbed the late party and went to the sack in my quarters. The next morning I felt kinda achy and someone said “Do you know what happened to Joe Giltner’s jeep, because they found the jeep with Ed Simpson beside it.” I didn’t respond and waited till I talked to Simpson. Ed said he was walking home from the Officer’s Club party and found the jeep with no one in it. As near as I can tell, Simpson decided to take a nap, which he did. That is how he got tangled into the jeep accident. When I got to feeling a bit better, decided that I’d better tell Joe Giltner the truth. I did. Joe let Simpson off the hook for the jeep wreck and restricted me to the base. He, Joe Giltner then managed to get himself shot down over Germany…….so Simpson and I both got off free….you see honesty pays!
OBee’s P-39 in Training. Drawing by Merle Olmsted
Wrong Room
A group of pilots were in the bar of the 114 Club located in Casper, WY. and it was closing time about midnight. As we exited the club, we passed the rest room areas, where I noted that the sign that spelled “WOMEN”, designating the Ladies rest room, had two light bulbs behind the lettering, but the one behind the letters “WO” was burned out. Jim Browning left us to use the restroom and he went into the first door that had a sign over the door reading “MEN”. Obviously it was the door with the burned out bulb in it so he was going into the Women’s rest room. I elbowed the guy standing beside me and said, “Watch this, it’s going to be pretty good”. Shortly thereafter, Browning rejoined us and I asked him, “How he’d handled the situation?”. His reply was, “I told the girls not to get up, I’d only come to wash my hands”. Not bad for an old country boy from Lyons, Kansas.
Tommy Hayes in Java, 1942
Long ago and far away, in the days of first class privates with fourth class specialties, Tommy (Our Leader) Hayes was a 2nd Lieutenant. As a matter of fact, the time was 20 February 1942 and the place was Blimbing, Java.
Tommy was a pilot in the 17th Pursuit Squadron (Provisional) part of the 24th Pursuit Group which was strung out from the Philippines through Australia. With very little to work with, they were rapidly loosing what they had. The successful Japanese were striking east of Java at Bali and Timor to cut the supply line from Australia.
On February 20, Tommy was part of a sixteen plane escort of P-40s herding three B-24s and some B-17s of the 19th Bomb Group going to stop the invasion of Bali. The result – exactly as you guessed – they got the hell kicked out of them.
Limping into Blimping Field with the canopy cranked back as the plane was shot to pieces, Tommy made a fantastic wheels up landing, no elevators landing right in the palm trees at the end of the strip. He came to rest on the duty runway. When the dust cleared and the shaking stopped, Tommy saw the “rescue” team drive up. Think of the joy and relief that flowed through his being. “I’m alive – I made it – help is here.”
As he looked up he watched a long arm with screwdriver in hand begin dog robbing the instrument panel. Nobody said a word.
OBee O’Brien
