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Show rr American Troops Land at Harbors on Guam - IS-- MY (S IPIL Col. Robert L. Scoff RtLLASR V-N- 7 FOREWORD The author, CoL Robert L Scott Jr, served under my command from July I, 1942, to January 9, 1943, at commander of my fighter force. The only criticism of hit actions at group commander vu that ho consistently scheduled hissuelf as a pilot on ell possible missions. He led all types of combat missions but specialised in the most e flights to dangerous, such at strafe from minimum altitude Jap motor vehicles, and shipping deep in enemy territory. It mu often stecessary for me to forbid his participation in combat missions in order to enable him to discharge the many other duties of a group commander. His story is a record of persistence, determination, and courage from early boyhood. Having determined early in life that he had to fly, he overcame all obstacles in the way to the attainment of his ambition. This story alone should be an inspiration to every American boy. Having become a military pilot , hit determined struggle to meet the on-omy and his glorious record first, as a "One Man Air Force," and later, as com-mender of the .American Fighters in Chum, should be an inspiration to all Americans of all ages. J Colonel Scott's group of fighters at-ways operated against greatly superior numbers of the enemy. Often the odds scare five to esse against them. Their planes end equipment score usually battered by herd usage and supplies score extremely limited. Both Scott and his handful ofpilbts had one resource in ttnlimited quantities courage. They also possessed initiative end a desire to destroy the enemy. They score themselves out doing the scork of ten times their number. They demonstrated time end again that American pilots end planet ere superior to the Japs. The result s which they achieved prove indisputably that the enemy can be destroyed or driven from China if adequate equipment and supplies ere made available. The offensive spirit displayed by Scott and his early pilots lives on in the men who replaced them. They impatiently eumit the weapon needed to drive on into the heart of Japan end to final victory. long-rang- -- ! ; : never-failin- g C. L CHENNAVLT, Major General, A. V. S, Commanding, 14th Air Force. AUTHOR'S NOTE My decision (or the title ot this book was probably made back there In Kunming one afternoon as the doctor dug those five rivet heads from my back. They had been drlv n In when a Jap explosive bullet hit the armor plate behind my seat To keep my mind off the pain the big pantonese intern of Doctor Man-gekept talking to me. He seemed to find it hard to believe that I flew that I the little fighter alone fired the six dropped the bomb machine guns changed the fuel tanks navigated and landed the fighter, finally, with disbelief in his eyes, he looked at me and said, "Colonel, you are up there all alone even talk over the radio when you shoot the guns? As I waited for him to go on with another question, I heard the old doctor say, "No, son youre not up there alone not with all the things you come through. You have the greatest copilot in the world even if there is just room for one in that fighter ship no, youre not alone. I believe when this war is over that we will be closer to God than at any time in the past I believe this because I have seen instances of real faith on all fronts. Take for instance: Just the other day a song came out "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer." That could have been conceived as a title or as the theme. of the song only by some real event A 'ship landed with an engine shot away the fuselage gutted by fire and the plane riddled with bullets. One of th war correspondents hurried out to the wounded pilot and asked, "How in the world did The you bring this ship in . . pilot shook his head, smiled and replied, 1 dont know ask the Man . ts upstairs. We who fly are going to get to know that Great Flying Boss in the sky better and better. My personal ''ambition is that He permit me to go again into combat against the Jap .or the Hun; that He help me Just a little to shoot down a hundred Jap. ships even thoasand. Then I hope He lets me come back to tell another story. Im going to name that one the sequel to this one GOD IS STILL MY CO-PILO- R. L. S. CHAPTER , 1 Even the angels 'in heaven must have shrugged their wings after the few seconds of my first flight For back home in Macon, Georgia, in 1920, I must have been, even at age twelve, the vandal type. There I climbed the steeple of the Baptist Church, and from the belfry took twelve whitish pigeons, carried them of Holy Rollers, to a and at the. tense moment of fanatic prayer released them. I can remember nearly splitting my sides laughing at what happened the darkies were rolling on the sawdust floor. They were .rolling their eyes and yelling, "Gideon, Gideon halleluiah glory, glory! I suppose the pigeons really did look like doves of peace. tent-meetin- Thursday, August in THEWEEKLY REFLEX PAGE SIX g But I had reckoned without the old preacher, who bad me arrested for disturbing the noisy peace. When I got out of Jail, more embarrassed than anything else, I swore vengeance on the Holy Rollers and the old preacher. Early one morning while delivering papers 1 took a razor blade and cut off fifty feet of canvas from the side wall of the converted circus tent took it away and hid it in the woods. I had no use for the purloined canvas, and to excuse myself from a nagging conscience I tried to forget it. But every morning I saw the jagged hole that I had made for vengeance. Later on I decided to build a glider, and for wingcovering the canvas was IdeaL Then, with the cloth stretched over the ribs of the airfoils and varnished for tightening, even with American insignia painted on the fuselage, I found myself ready to fly. Two of my friends helped me pull it to the roof of a high colonial home in Macon, and with them steadying the wings I ran down the sloping roof and fley out into space. Now in those days I knew nothing of "main-spar"center sections, or With a crack like the closing of the Jail door, the wing buckled in the center and I crashed n feet to the ground. The Cherokee rose bush that sacred State flower of Georgia into which I fell probably saved my life, but the thorns stayed with me for a long time. After my father had pulled me from the wreckage more scared than hurt I was ordered to tear the glider apart I did, but saved canvas for other plans. the Later on it was used to cover the barrel-stav- e ribs of a home-mad-e canoe which was intended to transport me down the Ocmulgee River to the sea, some twelve hundred miles' away as the winding river ran. I had made about six hundred miles of the trip when the sailing canoe caught on a snag and the current rolled us to the muddy bottom, tangled in the rope rigging Lthe salL In the seconds that followed I nearly drowned I saw my whole misspent life parade before my eyes. Finally the rope broke and I swam ashore; but I had already decided to leave the sacred canvas, seasoning forever, at the bottom of the Ocmulgee River. Once again my mind turned to fly'f ing. I confined my aircraft construction to scale models, and finally made a flying one which won the first Boy Scout Aviation merit badge in that part of the country. I remember when General Mitchell (Billy Mitchell) led a flight of MB-3- 's through the home town. I crawled into one of the baggage compartments in hopes that I would be flown on to Florida in k this flight. But the mechanics found me, and I missed making the pursuit ship any than it normally was. It was far back, when I was four or five, that I had seen my first airplane. A pilot by the name ot Ely spun in and was killed, and my horrified mother dragged me from the scene. It most certainly should have been an ill omen for my flying future. However, I know that it whetted my appetite to fly. I liked anything that flew and freed one from the earth, but most of all I prayed that destiny would make me s a pilot ot the fast, little a fighter pilot. s, "wing-loading- ." sixty-seve- ' ill-fat- ed fast-looki- dawn-to-dus- tail-heavi- er single-seater- I read of an auction sale in Americus, Jenny Georgia. Gathering the largest fortune that I could collect, I drove n Model-my racing Ford to a real buy myself plane. As the auctioneer's hammer hit the block for the first time that morning I opened with my maximum bid Seventy-fiv- e dollars! The auctioneer did look my, way, but the look wa$ merely a frown. Far in the back of the hangar a heavy voice called, "Six hundred dollars," And to this fat man the Jenny went, one by one. 1 must have bid 6ver a hundred times before the morning had gone the sale had stopped for lunch and had been resumed. That afternoon 1 kept bidding, and as I said "Seventy-fiv- e dollars for about my hundredth time, I heard heavy breaching over my right shoulder. I turned to look at the ftian who had been overbidding me, and the deep voice said, Now listen. son. I'm going to let you have this one for your seventy five dollars. Get it and get the hell out of here, because Im buying all the rest for an airline. Anyway I had a real plane, all crated up. I hauled it home on a truck, hid it in another boy's garage so my parents couldn't find out about it, and began trying to assemble the parts. For days and weeks I worked, but couldn't get the knack of it Finally I received k letter from a street-ca- r conductor who said he had been a pilot in the war. He offered, to help me put the Jenny, to--' "gether, and teach me to fly and navigate, if ,1 would give him use of the plane for "barnstorming over the State on week-endIn of 1921 war-tim- cut-dow- e T -- s. Tire partnership began. He taught roe soma fundamentals, like taxyinj faster and faster until the ship was almost ready to take off. I ChandierFleld in Atlanta arTtook Washington, D. C. NAZI FEACE FEELERS ' Reports that the German generals revolted against Hitler only after with Russia eac negotiations caused Washington dip(ailed, have loma tie sources to reveal that, on two previous occasions, German to Ru w on. day I trusted myself to tak, fK f1 SdS' , off from the racetrack of my home. town fairgrounds. I still dont se. JrU"offer cond front b. 10 how got by with the flight, bitter andwhenSt.Un C(tarted cause I knew nothing about stortfn not Allies for g it. the ordination of controls or the tech- Nazi peace offer number 1 was . made several months after Stalin- grad, during the early winter of 1943. beV' I. pr saved me from digging a wingtip in on the forthcoming ground-loop- s, and I got away with murder. AU of this ended very suddenly. Ihe cynsfiSTW cow, who, being neutral, was In a position to lay the matter before foreign Commissar Molotoff. Just arhat was In the Nazi olive branch conductor Instructor not deflnItely though Hit- of nftne c,m back to ler WM reported ready give back 9 night and hooked the Jennys right jto to Ruilllnl ,a of their e of a smokewing on the Ukraine. the except stack. That was the last of him and terrltory Molotoff la reported to have torn the last of my Jenny, because they up the offer and thrown It into the both burned. peace offer number 3 was As the years went on I moved up made in the summer of 1943 in a In the Boy Scouts until at seventeen. rilla on the outskirts of Stockholm. In 1923, I was one oI the highest In It was made by Bans Thomsen, Gerthe country,1 and 'had more merit man ambassador to Sweden and forbadges than' any other Scout In tha mer charge d'affaires in WashingSouth. With all of them, however, ton. Thomsen, who speaks perfect my schooling had suffered, for tc English, was born of a Norwegian me flying and athletics came before tather. and .married a Hungarian books and such. I sometimes think who was openly bitter against Hitler the only way I ever completed high and damned him at Washconstantly school was for my patient mother ington dinner parties. Washington and father to promise to let m Hostesses never knew whether Frau work my way to Europe on freight- Thomsen really hated Hitler or was ers in the summer only when 1 putting on an act to show that there could pass studies like Spanish and sould be freedom of., expression English.- I dont think, though, that among Germans. my parents knew 1 had resolved to At any rate. Hitler later gave her go to West Point For after talking husband a position of great trust as to men in the Air Corps I had dis- his own personal Interpreter, then covered that if a boy went to the sent him to Sweden, where ThomTraining center at Brooks Field, sen handled the peace discussion near San Antonio, as a Flying Ca- with the Russians. det his future was rather indefinite. The Stockholm olive branch also The Government would train you to was rebuffed by the Russians, though fly, give you the best course in the they didnt hesitate to let the Allies world, Ihen they would order you know that something like this was to active duty as a Reserve Officer about even intimated for about a year. After that due being talked if the second front wasnt that, to economy programs, it might all opened before long, the next olive be over. branch might be more acceptable. Wanting to fly for the rest of my Chore hill never teek any stock life, I "had charted my course. I in these intimations, claimed the resolved to go to the Military Acadwere bluffing and Russians emy and become a regular army make a separate would neer officer first; then to be ordered to the Air Corps Training Center as a peace with the Nasi. His thesis bo thrown student officer. After completing the was that Stalin would This If ho did. out of Russia flying course, I would have a lifeChurchill reason one was why time in front of me as a pilot in the kept pulling back from starting Regular Army. a second front. The greatest fight I had was to Roosevelt, however, felt that get into the Military Academy, for (1) It was only fair to the Rusappointments were scarce In the sians to carry out what we had South. I wrote all the Senators and promised them and the world as J Congressmen in Georgia, but found early as 1942; that (2) a second they had promised their quotas long front was the one way to keep before. All such refusals merely Germany busy on,two frorfla and made me more determined to win end the war in a hurry. the opportunity. I wrote not only my own State political leaders but DESTRUCTION OF THE ROBOT those of other States. Finally, the Authentic London reports are not Congressman of my Georgia dis- too encouraging regarding destructrict at the earnest plea of homeof the robot bomb. Greatest tion town friends who knew of my Boy success has been in knocking it out Scout record gave me second alter with fighter planes. Howthe air in nate. This proved of little value; a robot just 3H mintakes it the principal won out by merely ever, the channel, so the cross to utes credits presenting his to work with terrific have fighters and passing the physical examinatime from the bombs (Total speed. tion. The next year I was given until the it hits Lontime a first alternate from a Senator but launching 10 minutes.) estimated at is don again the principal won. If they knock the bomb down over Hope of entering the Academy it explodes with Just as London, seemed to wane, for I was approachas if they had let it much damage ing maximum age limit for appliis only one place to so there alone, cants. The same year I tried a over the channel. it after go competitive examination with the Once a roljCf escapes the fighters National Guard, but failed the algeand passes over London, bra subject This failure at least fire is stopped and the only proved to me that though my Itudiea to do is to let the bomb take thing in high school may have been course and explode wherever it its passed, I had learned .very little. hits. My stock in myself was at a low Furthermore, it is not easy to ebb, there in 192(1, when the. down a robot over the channel. knock principal did me the greatest Gunfire must strike its nose in orfavor in the world by his remark: der to explode it A cannon ball "Well, you really didnt expect to in the body of the robot plane, howgo to West Point, did you? And will usually knock it out. Some ever, the smile that accompanied the slur fighters have flown up very intrepid made me swear that by all that was the robot cannot fire back close would high and holy I get there. and tipped up its wing with the The things that followed were wing of the fighter chronologically peculiar for any boy. The Germans recently NOTE I'll" bet. I'm one of the few in this have perfected a clock which goes world who was graduated from high off Inside the robot about ten minschool, attended two colleges, and utes after ft leaves France, or abut then returned to high' school to real- the .time it is over London. This ly get the foundation. I had missed. clock turns the robots tail rudder I know I had at last learned that sc that it makes an eerie, graceful what one of the old professors said curve as if someone were inside was right: "Not for school, but for piloting It, or. as if it were radio-- t life, we learn. controlled'. This sudden turn is cal- Returning to my old high school. Germans to send it in lated by I chose my own courses and sub different Action from that in jected myself to several periods of, which BriUsh Irt preparing to mathematics, history, and English receive lb every day. The professors,1 who remembered me as seldom opening a ROBOT BOMBS IN LONDON' book, glanced at one' another as The uncensored diplomatic pouch though they thought they had a psy- from London reports that the prochopathic case on their hands. But I acquired some of the knowledge I portion of Americans being killed by Hitlers robot bombs is greater than had missed, and the next summer the proportion of British. This Is June, 19271 went to Fort McPherin London Americans son and enlisted in the Regular because to themselves learned haven'J adjust Army as a private.. "There I be-- 10 came Private Scott- - Serial Number- - bving in a city where death lurks very corner6355544, in Company "l-o- f tlie BecSuse Americans arenft trained in watching for means of protection In the street they lose that split sec- jndjktJme necessary to get out of he way of flying glass and bricks. street-ca- r pre-193- - guy-wir- Guam, first American possets! an to fall to the Japs, Is back nnder control of the military authorities. After' the U. 8. naval task forces subjected Jap Installations to Intermittent bombardment, the marines and army troops established beachheads. The Tanks drove northward and southward on the west coast, captured destroyed during the bombardment, killed hundreds of Japanese, destroyed tanks and installatfc and took possession of all major objectives. mmomemosumm msshmi ab-po- rts Yanks Take Prisoners and Mop Up St. Lo -- - high-scho- U. 8. tank destroyer (left), is lbs Tank Infantryman dashes down the street to cover past a knocked-ou-t town of St. Lo, France, during the mopping up of that section. Right German prisoners, soon of them without shoes, are herded through a ruined street In St. Lo. The German communications center In Normandy was captured by American forces after some of the most savage fighting of the Invasion. A shell-riddle- d Roosevelts Memorial Service Allied Ace of Aces ol anti-aircra- high-scho- ft 89 German planes to CoL Aledandre Lieut. credit, ryshkin, of the Soviet air frtwar. the the top Allied ace of shot down 43 of his victims wM Airs flying an American fighter. bra, the famed cannon With ol Shown entering Christ church, to attend services for Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr are left to right, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt and son, Lieut. Theodore Roosevelt IH. behind them are Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt HI, and brother, Lieut. Cornelius Roosevelt, USNR, andln rear, Lieut. Comdr. and Mrs. William McMillan, daughter. , , U. S. Fire Engine at Mexico Riot P-3- 9, Comforts of Home , j. ,t - recently Imported from the United States, attempted to b Illegal meeting of the National Proletarian Front. The fir. totally destroyed and scores were injured. ef aj. Pad Douglas (left), commander d, Ark to sqnndroi la bed for final eig" i Maj. Harold P. SP ter-Bom- j |