Months and they wouldnt touch rice either. As far as the mess hall, we didnt have a lot of rice there. We didnt have very good food. It was not too tasty. I came bam from other there and was working in chicago and the Office Manager where i worked was a japanese girl and wound up marrying her and eating rice the rest of my life. [ applause ] lets go back over here. My question concerned which pilot flew the hump first, was it the air commandos or the pilots of the 14th air force . I think it was the 14th air force. Pilots of which organization flew the hump first. Im still not reading you. Which flew the hump first . Do you know . What outfit through over the hump first . There was flight of airplanes. Jake sarks who was my roommate who arrived in india around the first of april and he was in another young man, paul conroy flew a couple of missions before. Jacob was the last airplane out of there. I think most of you heard that they loaded 71 passengers on there. When they arrived in i
To the west or Something Like that. The other was traffic to the right landing to the east. So i said traffic to the left, landing to the west and give me a call when youre downwind way and he said, and you stay right there until i get there. He came roaring up the ladder and he said, who the hell are you. And i said pfc more ray sir. Id have said smith. He said, youre not a tower operator. And i said no, sir. He said you are now. Stay here until somebody comes to relieve you. And about, i dont know, it was when we had our annual reunion in illinois, i ran into bill again. And i walked up, he looked at me and said, who are you. I said you remember the night when you came up to the tower and chewed out this guy. And he said yeah. I same, im him. Im the chewee. He said, can you still use a radio. I said yeah. That was the last time that i saw bill. He made his last flight shortly after that. But he was a character. None of the rest of you were, though. No. All nice young men. Absolutely.
He was followed by fred bremmer the bombadeer and myself. I was wondering what it was like on base just day to day when you werent out on missions . Are you talking about for the air commandos there . Yeah. Okay. Pat, do you want to take that. Well id like to accept it might not come as a surprise to you people that all three of us have hearing aides plugged in our ears. Unfortunately the day before i came up here the right one went on the fritz and i sent it in for repair. I dont know what the question was. My grandpa always does the same thing. I was wondering what it was like on base day to day when you werent out on missions. What it was like on what. On base day to day when you werent on missions. Can you describe what it was like when you werent flying missions . Yeah. It was a mad house. Our air strip when you think of c 47s and b 25s and the pursuit ships and all the planes taking off from there. You kind of think we have a paved air strip and it wasnt. As as i understood it, i