Show aa aa jr M 10 ri ovah 0 M mar 14 COPILOT CO am PILOT col robert L scoff RELEASE the story th alim u I 1 far fan after graduating torn tom west V P point t a second lieutenant boberi toberi scott wl wins ahli is whir at kelly field md arid takes takei up op combat flying byln bhea hes he wr war breaks break out he be Is if an 0 o instructor und ind li 11 told he hb li Is too old for or combat flying Is ie carries his case caie to several leveral generals Gene rati od fid I 1 Is finally given iven an opportunity to set fet 1 oto nto III abe a fight tie be flits a bomber into aidla where here he becomes a terry ferry pilot lot iut this does not appeal to him atter after gen chennault he seti gets a kitty lank and toon soon becomes ft a one man at alt ores dree a ever or burma ne he to ID made earn corn landing bandits officer ot of the fighter croup alaj allion alison sets gets three bombers bomben me day and lands landi la in the river nil his llano flame make CHAPTER but on the day when he finally lot ot out on his way to what he wanted 0 do most the japs struck at pearl barbor ajax had just landed at vake flake island and soldier that he vas he had reported to the marine lom commander om mander tor for duty he was hav og ag breakfast with the CO CO commanding officer major levereaux Sev evereaux ereaux when the japanese at atack came to wake ajax used to say that the unusual strength lie he demonstrated that morn ng eg was due to the heavy supply of rit arnin pills he had taken As the erst bomb hit the runway of the beld he ran with the others for the loor and the safety ol of the slit benches on the outside the door ripened inward but ajax opened it lutgard lU tu taking the screen the and most of that end of the building with him part ot of he glass hit him in the face and hat bat cut was the only wound he re delved in the bombing but he be car led the scar with him when I 1 last aw him in china baun baumler iler got out ol of wake island he be next day on the last clipper but 0 join the he was no longer loing west it was now necessary 0 go all the way back and a round around he other way towards the east inoway he managed to go by way it if washington and got promoted to kaptain I 1 believe if 11 ajax had bad stayed in washington just one more lay jay he be would have been a major liter seeing ajax baumler in a lew few bights I 1 wish that he had gotten to e a major before he came to china lor br he certainly was a fighter pilot during the month ol of our battle ol of leng Teng yang I 1 saw captain baumler lo io some ol of the nerviest ner things ive iver seen any man accomplish ne ie had a f lew ew ships chips that had been badly on the ground some if t them had been shot to pieces and n others the engines or hydraulic systems had been damaged in most tases lases these same ships be lot ot off the ground when the japs same lame over 0 sometimes o they were aught ahr three ee or r lour four times time by I 1 eros and consequently they were n a continual state ol of repair one ol of these was old number tie he ship that ajax had been flying che ground crew had worked on it br days but whenever have t just about ready to be taken back 0 the factory in dunming lor for over laul the japs would catch it again finally oie one doming ajax must have laid the hell with it for when he jin boo bao came he went and got nto the crippled fighter to take off afore the japs could get there to it again he told me later hat he was tired of seeing it sitting in the ground as a target whether t would fly or not he was goir going lg to let et it taxiing as fast as it would go nd at least make it harder to hit ban nan it had been in the revetment veil lvell ajax did better than he lot ot off but the story ot of it all cached me later on I 1 was on the ground that day and ilant see it but I 1 heard ajax talk ng on the radio and I 1 heard his six guns uns when he caught one of the zeros just a little later I 1 saw the rail fail ol of black smoke that marked lie he enemy ship going down I 1 was glad lad to hear bear ajax talking that morn ng ag for a minute id thought that smoke might be ba he going down in hat luckless number all the time hed been flying the ship hed seen een having to pump the landing gear up manually tor for the hydraulic system had been shot up by the tap strater days before added to f Ns his an exertion which is no pleas int task at fighting altitudes was a more painful experience the cards were tere stacked even more heavily against ajax in this jinx ship tor for bis electrical system was shorting shorting out iut gon on his takeoff take off from hengkang Heng yang as te he gave the ship the guri gun baumler bad felt a terrible electrical shock through his sweaty har hand A on the stick control tont rol he turn the stick loose or the ship would have crashed in the takeoff take off run so he grimly bield on take hold of the spark plug of your car some time while the angine Is running and feel hist st about what ajax felt but he kept holding it until he be was at an where it was sale safe to turn the stick loose get out hla his handkerchief bl a L and d wrap it around the stick t ev even e alter after he had been through be e fight and came in to land at Lin jingling gling he had to take some more of the shock cure for or by that time the he handkerchief was damp and the was jumpa jumping ng through it he stay long on this last held lor for the japs were an on the wai way back in iiii waves so he re serviced and taxied out to take off though the was row new missing badly ajax waittie wait the japs would be ore asre in a matter of minutes he tried a takeoff take off oft with the cur rent going through his bis arms again and the engine spitting and sputtering and at the end of the runway he still enough speed to get in the air he would swerve the ship about and try the other direction finally after three runs he got the fighter plane in the air pumped the wheels up by hand and continued doing it lor for five hundred miles and so flew back to Kun dunming ming but it all hard work and no play in china some evenings we used to sit in our cave down at kwei ewel un lin and listen to the tokyo radio they would give us reports on the missions that we flew to bankow canton and the cities near lake auyang hu hanchang Nan chang and kukland declare that we were using barbarous tactics and that we were going to be treated as guerrillas il if we were captured one night while we sat there calmly listening to the news and playing gin rummy tokyo news analysts announced they did not think the american fighter force in china was large true enough said the radio they had struck weakly at several cities in their barbaric way bombing innocent chinese women and children and for this the american pirates would pay when they were prisoners of the imperial japanese government now fighting to liberate asia tor for the we listened to the usual blah without w raising an eyebrow until radio tokyo continued we dont think the american fighter force in china Is more than three hundred ships there was a squadron thab came over from assam to work with us part of another group from india in this squadron there were some fine fighter pilots one of whom was dallas clinger from old wyo va VIR pilots of the china air task force on the alert at hengkang Heng Beng yang ming clinger was another man who in years gone by in the west would have been a great gunman like tex hill only clinger have cared whether he was on the side of the law the mormons cormons Mor mons the church or jesse james he just wanted to fight one morning clinger was one of a formation of three fighters over hen yang his combat report read like this 1 I was flying on my leaders wing lieutenant lombard at feet when we saw three enemy planes down below circling there were larger formations reported around just then I 1 heard my flight leader say there are three stragglers lets attack em so we dove into them like mad As I 1 shot into the zero on the right ot of the formation I 1 saw that we were in the midst of twenty tour four other zeros all shooting at us I 1 got mad and shot at every plane that I 1 could get my a sights on I 1 think I 1 shot one down but I 1 was so busy I 1 see it crash this was signed DALLAS CLING ER 2nd and lieutenant almost unemployed what clinger had bad really done was the greatest piece of daredevil flying that any of us had ever seen instead of diving away from the twenty seven ship circus as the others had done he be had stayed and fought the old fashioned dog ight until the japs just about took hirn him to pieces from sheer weight of numbers when they straggled home they must have been the most surprised bunch of pilots in all japan tor for this crazy american with his heavy PAO P 40 had done ever everything thing in or out of the book he fought right side up arnd upside down from feet down to less than oia thousand As many japs us its could ml fill the air behind clinger would get there and try to hang on while they shot but clinger fight fair and stay there in the end he came right over the field diving from the enemy until he had outdistanced them enough to turn then hed pull up into an emmelmann Imm elmann and come back shooting at them headon head on he was last seen after the unequal fight skimming out across the rice paddles making just about miles an hour with some ten to twelve zeros following toU owing for some reason they seemed reluctant as though they know whether to run after clinger or leave him alone he came in for or lunch with his bis ship badly shot up by their cannon 13 but tt he had shot one of them down and had got another probable down Lin jingling gling way on another morning clinger went into an attack with his engine acting up after the first contact with the enemy he was forced to land followed by two enemy stra fers As clinger maneuvered the falling failing fighter into a safe landing the two zeros came down shooting at his rolling P 40 dallas from wyoming got out on the wing to jump onto the ground with his ship still rolling just then one of the jap bullets went tight right through his seat pack chute passing exactly between Cl ingers pants and where he sat on the parachute he ha got so mad he be jumped back in the cockpit and shot at two zeros RD as they passed over his nose after all air cooled guns are made to shoot while the ship la Is going two or three hundred miles an hour but lieutenant clinger said he got in a pretty good burst from his grounded fighter before the six fifties froze johnny auson alison had helped to train clinger ln the tactics of fighter pilots in tact fact johnny used to fly with ever man in his flight on his wing at one time or another in one training flight such as this he took clinger up and they practiced attacking one another dog fighting the peashooter pea shooter pilots say up there at nearly feet they came at one another headon head on time after time until the moment when as johnny told me later he was sure clinger was going to run into him auson alison who usually forced others to give way had to dive under cun cilia gers P 40 they circled and tried again and again clinger kept right on coming until as the ships drew together et at well over six hundred miles an hour relative speed once more johnny had to dodge and the wild man from wyoming went on over his head they landed then and by the time johnny had climbed out of his ship p he had calmed down clinger came nonchalantly over just in passing auson alison said that was pretty good flying clinger you fly formation well and you look around okay but you want to watch those headon head on runs you nearly hit me up there did you know that clinger shifted the weight of his body back to both feet with his chin out he answered yes sir major I 1 tried to you see youve been flying longer than I 1 have and I 1 know im not as good a pilot as you are but sir si I 1 knew id come closer to you than you would to me you can find and the remains of a good many japs in china or somewhere down in the china sea who know that clinger meant just what he said hed keep coming at them headon head on and shoot them out of the sky before they got to him the battle for the defense of heng yang lasted through august but we just sit there on the defensive we rapidly took the offensive as our best defense and kept it up until higher headquarters sent us a very classic radio you either did not understand or did not receive my last radiogram to remain on the defensive repeat quote on the defensive unquote signed chennault at hanchang Nan chang on august 11 1942 I 1 shot down my fourth enemy plane that was confirmed though I 1 hate the japs with a passion I 1 felt sorry tor for that pilot tor for he never saw me at all but as I 1 left his burning ship north of the runway that he had been taking off from I 1 thought ot of the boys in the philippines and save java and I 1 so sorry I 1 had dropped my five hundred pound bomb on the hangars when in pulling out of the dive I 1 saw lieutenant barnum from old lyme connecticut continue his dive on a jap ship and begin to fire on it I 1 looked below there was dust at the tar far end of the jap field where one enemy plane was taking off I 1 rolled over and dove pulling out about a half mile behind the enemy at the moment he got off the ground his wheels had just begun to move to the up position as I 1 got him dead in my sights and pressed the triggers As the pilot died his new 1972 2 pulled straight up then spun into the ground the few feet it had climbed I 1 passed over it as the names flames belched from the wreckage I 1 climbed tor for an enemy observation plane higher over lake auyang hu but the jap out climbed me and though I 1 fired at him several times from long range he finally got away on this trip barnum had shot down one oe enemy ship and lieutenant daniels though unable to release his wing rack fragmentation bombs had strafed the field with his bombs hang hanging I 1 n g 0 on 1 after the attack this pilot bad force landed his plane in a rice paddy near hengkang Heng yang rather than ball bail out and this decision to save the ship for spare parts had been made with the six fix brags still hari hanging ging from the faulty wing racks he got away with it and captain wang was oble able to salvage the fighter when the tha P got so shot up that we were afraid quit running and wed lose them over the enemy unes lines we were called sack to Kun dunming ming there sitting around tor for two weeks while we worked on the ships and anxiously bously looked for mall mail from horrie home the war seemed tar far I 1 away I 1 TO ITO BE BBS CONTINUED |