Show lee U WARS ARS GREATEST SAGA when n the final history of ol the war r Is is told one of its greatest chapters will describe that branch of the service ice totally new to war the air transport command transporting prime ministers and presidents wounded men jeeps and pat hurley leys s cadillac over oceans and deserts has now become commonplace news to the american public but behind that commonplace news is a thrilling story of painstaking backbreaking pioneering here are some things thinas few people know mow about the air transport command most used air route in the world is not between washington and new york not between new ew york and chicago but over i tile the hump between china and india traffic over this worlds highest mountain range the himalayas is so heavy that planes travel at different alti tudes audes so there will be no collisions one plane will have orders to hy fly at feet another at and so on three or four different air routes are used across the hump also to avoid collisions next most heavily used air route is across the north atlantic the ATC sends a plane across the atlantic every 58 53 seconds about lai as fast as traffic moves on the pennsylvania railroad between new york ind and philadelphia busiest rail line in he world the ATC is now fly ng jig returning troops across the at antic at a rate of per month for years ATC pilots lave been briefed on how to land n the difficult airports of greenland iceland or china now the TC has the tremendous thrill of sri efing pilots on arriving at home sorts orts boston portland long island pilots say that no briefing was vas ever more welcome from battle fronts more than wounded men cave bave been carried in ATC planes iway from the battle front dur ng the early stages of okinawa fighting ight ing planes swooped down on makeshift runways taxied up to ambulances bu Du took off right under the loses of jap guns stretchers were faded aboard while the planes re dueled one big ATC job has nen een getting crashed fliers out of he himalayas amazing fact is that 15 5 per cent are saved lt gen aarold george boss of the ATC realized in advance that crashes armould be heavy over the hump so nen were given special training on low to live in the jungles they vere even taken to jungle outposts 0 get familiar with the jungle be ore they hopped every plane lying the hump has a small tin hest with its own parachute con aaning medicine snakebite snake bite anti lote water purifier concentrated bod signal flares mirrors bosqui 0 0 nets etc this chest is kept near the planes door if the crew has 0 to o jump the chest is kicked out before the last man leaves the plane in the jungle crews are taught to stay where they are until sighted by rescue planes which signal instructions as to where they can be picked up natives are usually friendly ri endly and the chances of getting escuad rescued from the jungle ar are far better than if a flier drops over over the des ert or in the sea japs shot down many the japs shot down many ATC planes early in the war by painting their DC as with U S insignia flying up close the japs waited until they had perfect targets then fired U S planes had to be repainted before pearl harbor roosevelt rd ered special fighter planes bushed to the british in egypt where rommel had general sack lack to the wall however fight sr planes make the long trek across africa without refueling and there was no airport in the heart of the continent one day an american engineer was dropped off a plane almost in the center of africa in french territory not far from the sudan he had his pockets stuffed with money and his head stuffed witt ideas that was about all lie he also had instructions to build an airport six weeks later the ATC came back and he had a foot runway in fairly good shape he had drafted most of the camels and most of the natives in that part of africa and paid them plenty to do the job fighter planes immediately began crossing to the egyptian front and the british army staged its comeback today the french are making diplomatic inquiries as to this airport a apparently with a view to taking it over fifty million letters fifty million letters were flown by the ATC to europe in april this peak load has now dropped off due to troop transfers out of europe but bu the ATC has been the largest mail carrier in history also it runs the worlds largest hotel chain it II must be prepared to hendle 1000 men a night at natal brazil also feed ced them ATC hotels are seat scat all over the world to handle ferrying ferr vine and combat pilots when the weather is bad hotel hole facilities overflow |