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Show If IPIMWBILlf .WHITS. tyOfJ.Ttftife W.N.U.TEATUREJ I THC, TAR: U'ot- Col. when the JPi 1 "ul Eight of hU rfma" the,FOfl' Zti on the round. V Java, where they r" over the PWUp-I PWUp-I ul sergt. Boone. fcss? ,rom Z f japs bombard a rl . and a JP om fSa Another born J,ff!s the fliers' .PPly ;hmi us steel tripods , machine shop, but we J. time getting anyone We were flying '3d couldn't do it our. Silva and I took the mut into Madiun. On ers we saw a bunch ,tanding around picking or scratching their bot-,rgued bot-,rgued they must be Jap ' or else they would helping win the war. ioutour.45's. and by a f they all got Into that l... some of the nic- but still it's nice to have the most beautiful girl in town crazy about you, to the point where it even bothers both-ers the admirals. "She was, so they said, a very high Dutch socialite and had lots of money, which you might guess by how simple and expensive her evening eve-ning dresses were. In the daytime she wore a beautifully tailored uniform uni-form of one of the woman's volunteer volun-teer organizations. I think she drove a car for the Dutch General Stall. "Meanwhile my job was growing by leaps and jumps. In that hotel dining room you might see General Wavell, the British Commander in Chief, or Admiral Hart, or General Brett, who commanded the United Nations Air Force, or Van Oeyen, the Dutch Commander in Chief. I was circulating among the tables, and my brief case was so crammed with hot information I wouldn't trust it in a checkroom. "There was a feeling of tension. Refugees ha"d been crowding in from Singapore and Sumatra. Now there was a feeling that maybe they'd be crowding out soon. Lots of the natives na-tives had already left, and those servants ser-vants who remained you knew were staying only because they were very loyal. But to whom? Maybe to the Dutch. Or maybe to someone else that was why I slept uneasily. Or maybe because the whole outlook for the war was so bad. I realized in the Philippines I had only been lucky, and I might never get out of Java. It was very hot, and In the j distance a thunderstorm was mut-tering mut-tering as it moved toward the city. "Anyway, I'd been lightly asleep for about an hour when a glare awoke me. It wag a flashlight, held very close-a haze of yellow light coming through the mosquito net-ting net-ting over my face. But in this haze I could see that the same fist which held the flashlight also held a steel knife, and that its point stuck down into the yellow cone of that flashlight. flash-light. The other hand was just touching touch-ing the edge of my pillow. "I gave a yell and dived through that netting like a cat, but the yellow yel-low light instantly winked out, and I was standing there alone in the darkness, while Jacquet rolled out on the other side. He hadn't been as nervous as I, and was sleeping more deeply. But just then a blue lightning flash lit up the room, and by its quick glare I saw the door Into the corridor closing (I was sure I had locked it). But when I got out into the corridor it seemed empty. "Why hadn't he stabbed me? I think because he was surprised to find Jacquet there. One of us would surely have been able to make an outcry. And I thought to myself, 'Well, stranger, for a newcomer you're sure getting Into a lot of things, because you never thought some guy you didn't know and had never bothered would ever try to kill you through mosquito netting in a place called Java.' The brief case was okay." "And the queer thing was," said Margo, "that just at this time the report got back to America that Frank was dead. He'd been killed in a flying accident in Java. I was down in Florida by then, and the only man I could really talk to was Cliff Jensen, an Air Corps boy we had known at March and Albuquer-nnp Albuquer-nnp nnH later at Morrison Field. JDUfe ... i you ever saw. After f to alarm would go off L to those foxholes and Jlwe knocked down five I them In e short tlme e fixing up our planes, i il guns had finally cured making attacks from be-they be-they were coming in at u, hunting for our soft .( us out like we were on i aofa, but mostly hitting us head-on, be-discovered be-discovered that in the i only a single little .30-fpas .30-fpas the designers, aft-Bin aft-Bin those tail guns, had could rest on their hull hu-ll can never do that long jot busy there on Madiun mounted a big .50-caliber e navigator's compart-jrg compart-jrg it so it would fire out i'ilator. And for good e stuck in another .30- en they're carrying out i the factory, but the only Jctory can learn what is iirom the combat crews jut the time we got those rfrigged in the nose, the d staying away from us. f ing along pretty as you p a flock of Zeros would iew, but staying well out just looking us over. Then 'tunners might fire a burst "He was stationed near by, and now was working twenty-one hours a day for the rest of the gang who were fighting in Java. I could really real-ly talk to Cliff we understood each other. The rumor that Frank was dead somehow reached Australia, and of course the Air Corps is a small place. In a few days Colonel Truesdell in California heard it from one of the ferry pilots, and a few days later Cliff heard of it. He didn't tell me, because he wasn't quite sure, but some people thought it had really happened. "I could feel the difference. They were looking at me queerly now. They would say what a fine boy i i , -, ihnt tViav iimra Section, Just to let them re on the balls. Or some-eros some-eros might come in for wide, sweeping passes. I they'd go off with their en their legs. Toward ty only tried to get us on 4 They knew we had no there to speak of no fd no pom-poms. They'd fcolant as could be." I At gunners were in the j rtady to fire.) fas the week I got into (way over my head in this p." said Frank, "but first (to look at that big de luxe j was the unofficial capi- ? Its lobby, bar, and din-wre din-wre crowded with uni-Wuh. uni-Wuh. Dutch, and Amerl-fcked Amerl-fcked like a Hollywood cos- Ean enormous high-, high-, acious thing, open to the l-ese air-little tropical I3 Ay in and out of the f and roost on the gleam-I'-iers. 8. . The same fist which held the flashlight flash-light also held a steel knife. staying around to watch us, relaying re-laying information we knew not how, or to whom. You couldn't be sure of anything. "Except that I knew they were watching me, maybe only out of idle curiosity as I circulated from one table to the other, and kept that brief case leaning against my leg when I sat at my own table. "That hotel certainly wasn't built to keep military secrets. The big high-ceilinged bedrooms had only swinging half-doors like barrooms-open barrooms-open to the air above and below. The barefooted native servants looked after them, only I'd catch them slipping in and out of mine at queer times of the day. But I thought I only imagined it. I also suspected they were listening in the corridor outside. One evening a couple of the pilots were down from Malang-going back the same night sitting on my bed while we talked over new orders, and somehow a feeling grew on me we were being lectins b nthers f rame naa ueeu. ui m -"w -. praying for his safe return. They never understand. They can't see that what you're anxious about is not the distant future, but this very night. Is he hungry? Must he go out on a mission? Maybe he's been badly hurt during the day, and you don't know it yet. "Praying that everything will be all right during those weeks and months to come scares you it's ask-ing ask-ing too much, you're afraid. You just pray he's all right tonight, and isn't wounded, and will get enough sleep, so he'll be strong and alert and have a good chance tomorrow. You don't dare ask more. "Also those strong plump sunburned sun-burned men who could leave their business for months to lie around ' on the Florida sands were very 'realistic' 'real-istic' about the war sure it was all a terrible mess and everything was going to pieces, offering me lots of sympathy. But what had any of them ever done to get us a decent Air Force in the past? Or what good were they or their 'realism' doing anyone now? I liked Cliff's better. He knew what the boys were up . . j ...- half thu night Ich are great eaters, and something they call reis-u reis-u order it and then sit eat while twenty-three ; up and walk by your ta-arrying ta-arrying a different sauce towl of relish or rice. )3ce and managed to live nly every other course, colonial Dutchman will : " twenty-three into his big g the ayers down with fer. you might see the trol Wmg io in from re-,ce re-,ce drinking Daiquiris Wa Navy billeting headed head-ed often I would see my If High School class-Kobertson, class-Kobertson, sitting there -ours, very handsome in . Ws uniform, and with j"' most beautiful girl in watched, i wmspeieu -to go on talking, slipped off my shoes, tiptoed to the door. Just as I opened it I caught a glimpse of a white robe flitting around the corner When I got out into the blacked-ou corridor, I could see nothing. But then I was sure. "That night I slept with my brief case under my pillow. I" "dtJ" every bed was provided with a Dutch widow. At first the American pilots didn't know what to make of this and would kick them out on the floor Tshould maybe explain that a Dutch widow is a long padded bolster, and S you sleep with it between your knees, it keeps your legs from press-S press-S T ogether and sweating n e Iropical heat. After a while the pilots began to like them. -But that night I went to sleep wondering about the white shape rn RPen flit around the corner. It against ana woo uH -trying to hurry reinforcements. Out of the little we had (and he knew how little), so they could hold what they could. Cliff made sense. The rest was a nightmare." "When we'd first hit Java," said Frank "we'd been full of the offensive offen-sive spirit-sure we were going to roll the Japs back off the Philippines onto Formosa with those thousand nlanes which, according to rumor, were coming within three months. The second month was almost up now Java was unsteady under our feet' and we'd so far received about two dozen P-40's, maybe a few more Forts than that, and seven dive bombers. Hardly fifty planes in all. "Now we knew the offensive was out for the time being. What we waved for was fighters-to defend what was left of our Forts and those nnmmiflaeed Dutch air- f dark hair, and an almost rIacethat was sad in re-r re-r smile would quickly r nd you'd wonder how Z hav'e thought that. L .1 autiful le83 ln the KtT,d walk thrugh the f w John's arm and look- IW Ven the oldest a ch?lral Would rustle a "t- forLTd Iean Utt0Sive I'avai lnsPection. The C S1 Pilots envied John to fcs tt y Would have hat" ttey hadn't liked him I !' Ve7 busy and I don't I ve her much thought. J seemed about the same size as me waiter who had been staring at me Tn he dTning room for me past three Hays Only staring isn't quite the wo'rd. Because this particular little chili-picker had 6'assy eyes -ke a turtle. I could never catch them d rectly on me, but I had the feeling it was I he was interested in. "Two nights later Lieutenant Jac-quel Jac-quel camVup from Malang. By th 5m. we had ff.T late I suggested he d better spena the night with me. I put my brief case under my piUow as usual On this particular night i con tamed something so import tXdon ven like to talk about it now. jm-j beauuiuiij u, fields With fighters to hold them off we knew we could hold Java. "All right, suppose the Japs had rroved into Timor and cut the jugu-vein jugu-vein from Australia, so that our P.40's could no longer Stand chain to us on their belly anks? Why not a carrier? Couldn t the Navy spare just one-wh.ch could load up with P40's in Australia Austra-lia and then, when It was still several hundred miles from Java and Lt of range of the Jap bombers lt could turn the P-40's loose let them fiy on in to us. and go back for another load? (TO BE CONTINUED) |