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Show Co!. Robert L Scoff FOx sjvurr w.n.u. release imyJk. The story thus far: Robert Scott, a i West Point graduate, becomes an air cadet at Randolph Field, Texas, realizing hit life's ambition. He wins his wings at Kelly ield and is now an army pilot. Ordered to report to Hawaii, but wanting ta marry a girl m Georgia, he pleads wita bis General to keep him m the country, coun-try, and la ordered to Mitchel Field, N. T. To gain more flying time he carries the mail for Uncle Sam. Makes more trips to Georfla and finally talks Catharine 'ato marrying him. From Mitchel Field ae if sen to Panama where his real pur-loit pur-loit training Is begun In a P-125. He Is liven a Job constructing flying fields which would some day protect the Canal. He begins to train other pilots. change and I welcomed it I found myself directors training in a twin-engine twin-engine school-I was still getting farther and farther .from the war. It seemed to me now Jhat all was lost. I had tried desperately lor the last six months to get out of the Training Center, and now that war had come it seemed that the powers at the top had decided that all of us, whether we had been trained as fighter pilots or as combat com-bat pilots, bomber pilots, or transport trans-port pilots, were nevertheless to stay there in the Training Center. December, Decem-ber, January, and February went by, and in these months I wrote from Victorville to General after General. I remember saying to one of them: "Dear General, if you will excuse me for writing a personal letter to you on a more or less official subject sub-ject in time of war, I will certainly submit to -you for court martial after the war. But if you can just listen to me I don't care whether that court martial comes or not. I have been trained as a flghter pilot for nine years. I have flown thousands of hours in all types of planes. I've been brought here as an instructor and I think I've done my job. Please let me get out to fight. I want to go to Java, I want to go to Australia, Aus-tralia, I want to go to China, India, and anywhere there's fighting going CHAPTER V By this time, war with certain countries appeared imminent. I had always believed that we would fight Japan, and had always believed that Japan would make the first thrust And I tried to "figure out" every cadet that came through our school tried by talking to him to find out whether or not he had the urge for combat, for I knew that the urge was positively necessary. Not only did a man have to have that certain cer-tain incentive to fly and keep on flying, until flying became second nature, but he had to have the definite defi-nite urge far combat. When he learned to fly automatically he would control the ship without thinking think-ing about the controls and have his mind free to concentrate on navigation naviga-tion and the aiming of his guns besides watching his tail for the enemy. From Ontario I went to Lemoore, In the San Joaquin Valley of California, Cali-fornia, and there J went through one of the low periods of my life. It was not that Lemoore was bad, lor the people were wonderful but war was getting closer and closer, and I was getting farther from combat com-bat duty. Finally, after war had opened on December 7, I began to write Generals all over the country in an effort to get out of the Train-tag Train-tag Center. After all, I had been an instructor for nearly four years and it was pretty monotonous. I knew that instructors were neces-ry, neces-ry, but I wanted to fight and I thought that if I could get out to Sght with my experience, I could j vi ? a -If all those thousands of miles to see for even ten minutes . . Tears came to my eyes-I knew I had been a fooL For hours I lay awake. And then, in the darkness, I think I saw the otter side. Suppose I called that officer who had telephoned me from Washington. Suppose I called and told him that I had lied-that I had never flown a Flying Fortress. I could easily get out of this mission but the thought was one that I couldn't entertain even for a second. For now the. seriousness of war had 1 gradually come to me. Unless men hke myself thousands and millions of them left these wonderful luxuries lux-uries in this great land of America we could lose it all forever. I loved these two with all .my heart, but the only way in all the world to keep them living in the clean world they were accustomed to was to steel myself to the pain of parting with them for months or years or even forever. The actuality of war, grim war, had come. I knew then that the theoretical word "Democracy" "Democ-racy" was not what we were to fight for. I knew it was for no party, no race, creed, or color. We were going go-ing to fight, and many of us were to die, for just what I had here my wife and family. To me, they were all that was real, they were all that I could understand. To me. they were America. Next day we got the household goods packed. We piled on an east-bound east-bound train and left California. That ride for me was the saddest thing that has ever happened. I would look at those two and see that my wife was thinking my own thought; even the little girl seemed to sense that all was not well At Memphis, I almost casually bade them good-by, good-by, and we parted. But as I watched their train disappear down the track I knew that part of my life was gone. My world was grim. Reaching my assembly point for instructions, I found that I was reporting re-porting to Col. Caleb V. Haynes, one of the greatest of big-ship pilots the pilot in our Air Force who had devoted much of his life to making the four-engine bomber the weapon that it is today. The entire group of officers and men made quite a gathering. I learned that they were all picked men, and that they had volunteered and almost fought for places on the crews of the Fortresses. For-tresses. And as I heard the explanation expla-nation of the flight from Colonel Haynes I saw the reason for .their excitement This was a "dream mission" one that was a million kinds of adventure adven-ture rolled into one. We were to fly thirteen four-engine bombers one B-24 and twelve B-17E's to Asia. There we were to "bomb up" the ships after we had gone as far East as we possibly could, and then were to bomb objectives ob-jectives in Japan. Our orders read that we were to co-ordinate our attack at-tack from the West with another attack at-tack that was coming from the East The sadness that had been with me since leaving my family vanished. van-ished. Once again I saw the war in a spirit of adventure. Here was what any soldier might have prayed for here was what the American public had been clamoring for during dur-ing the months since Pearl Harbor. I was fortunate to be one of the pilots; pi-lots; it almost made up for my failure to finally get into single-seater single-seater fighter ships again almost, but not quite. That night we talked things over and mflt each other, and next morning morn-ing we left for Washington, with our newly drawn equipment. Our planes were in Florida, being made ready for combat, but we were obliged to go by way of Washington for the purpose, astounding in war, of securing se-curing diplomatic passports. I remember' re-member' that even in the joy of the I mission, I couldn't help wondering ! what kind of a war this one could be. We were having to seoure passports pass-ports in order to be able to fight Visas were obtained for all countries coun-tries w were to fly over and through Brazil, Liberia, Nigeria, Egypt Arabia, India and China, especially! Visas to go to war! Properly inoculated against fourteen four-teen diseases, with visas for everywhere, every-where, with trinkets for trade with natives in Africa, Arabia, and Burma Bur-ma we went on down to Florida. The instant I landed I hunted out my ship B-17E Air Corps number 41 9031. I soon painted on its nose the red map of Japan, centered by the cross-hairs of a modern bomb-sight, bomb-sight, with the cross right over Tokyo To-kyo ' In my poor Latin was inscribed in-scribed "Hades ab Altar" - or roughly. "Hell from on High.' I climbed into the control room of my ship and met my crew. Each man was a character, each man wanted badly to get started. The co-pilot was Doug Sharp, another an-other dark-haired Southerner, a first Lieutenant who was destined to get shot down in another Flying For-tress For-tress over Rangoon. He coolly got , most of his crew out of the burning ship; then, with those who were unable un-able to parachute to safety, he land-"d land-"d the flaming ship in the rice pad-dies pad-dies of central Burma. From this Lint he led his men those whom Edld m have to bury beside : t "hro0ut through the Japanese Unes toTaTety in India. He was .made . Major after this gallant act (TO BE CONTINUED) come DacK later on and be even more valuable as an instructor of fighter pilots. At last things began to happen. On December 10, I was hurriedly ordered or-dered to report to March Field. When these secret orders came, I thought the day for my active entry Into the real war was near. Hardly taking time to get my toothbrush the radiogram said, "immediately" -I jumped into a car and drove madly through the Valley and over the pass of Tejon through the snow t the summit at nearly ninety miles " hour, to March Field. I arrived there in a blackout, and though I w to see plenty of combat later on, III take an oath that the nearest fve been to death in this war was hen I rode into March Field with J lights out, trying to follow the toe in (he highway that was not re. Army trucks went by with . Pin-point blue lights, and as I "Med out of my car the trucks uld almost hit me., When I anan.y got on the p'ost my radiogram for admission, ' ,ore up to the headquarters and Wfations office, expecting any min-le min-le to be told to jump in a P-38 a P-40 and go up to protect Los geles. There were many others ht! m?'Self' ,or apparently all pi-. pi-. ""to Pursuit experience had assembled. Squadrons of pursuit planes would "me "rough daily on the way up ' coast and we all grew envious etching them. The only cheer- I toing Was the radio broadcast of Capt. Colin P. Kelly !hi b rew sinking the Jap battle-P battle-P Haruna. In this engagement became the first hero of the and 1 was verT proud. For "Plain Kelly had been under my " traction at Randolph Field. I d well remember that fine stu-bli stu-bli n eUent attlt"de for a com- "PUol He had broken his collar-..! collar-..! , football scrimmage at , ft. nd had told no one on ,g Une' Poking in the rear- mirror, I saw him flying with "at hand on the stick; when I eld?, A hlm' 1 'earned of the ac- "t- Fighter Kelly had been so j'otis to get on with the course of "jction that he was completely wing broken bones. Of such ma-,w,a ma-,w,a are heroes made. tuVtU1nWanted to fight myself. I Jtais remernber the years and ft, ! I had trained in Panama with ,1 Pursuit Squadron; I had ltmt " t0 younB t0 lead an "inh aiSht, a squadron, or h,t( !"g- Then suddenly I was told W 1 was not orJy to oid we Ulat- at age 34! to lead a ' a bW alB0 to old to lead to j grouP- In fact I was too old '"Jed! 8ghter Plane In'o combat, bein- , leD toe Generals that from iL 100 young, 1 had suddenly Beve, ,l0 being too old. There had . b" a correct age. Sut all ,K vai argument was to no Urt nd after waiting around "'fcred k 'd tor ten days we were 1 n--. 11 t our home stations. ''quhT11 40 Lemre In the San Bat ' 'Dl01 there was no man J,,!1 any sadder that night It Vlfi. came orders to report wvffle at least here was a I Capt. Colin Kelly, who sank the Jap battleship Haruna. on just so you get me out of the monotony of the Training Center." An answer came back from this General; He would do all he could, he would even forget the court martial, mar-tial, but men were necessary in the training centers. Even with these kind words, it appeared that my cause was lost. Then, when the future fu-ture looked worse than at any time in my life, a telephone call came from Washington, from a Colonel. "Have you ever flown a four-engine four-engine ship?" I answered immediately: "Yes, Sir." I had flown one for a very few minutes, at least I'd flown it in spirit while standing behind the pilot and co-pilot but that was the only time I'd ever been in the nose or in the cockpit of a Flying Fortress. His next question was, "How many hours have you flown it?" I told him eleven hundred; there was no need to tell a story unless it was a good one, and after all, I considered this a white kind of lie a white lie that was absolutely necessary if I was to get to war. After giving this information I went back to waiting with my hopes way up. One night in early March, 1942 they came true and to me they read like a fairy tale, too good to be true. I was to comply with them Immediately, reporting to a field in the Central States. There I would receive combat instructions rrom the leader of our mission. As I drove over from Victorville to my home in Ontario that evening, it seemed as though I was already in the air adventure had come at last Even then the (ear tugged at my heart that the orders would be changed before I could start. I told mv wife that I was going to combat com-bat but the nature of the orders forbade for-bade my telling her where, or what type of mission. Not even at the look of pain that crossed her face did I lose my feeling of victory. She was trying to act happy, but I knew it was only because she remembered remem-bered that I wanted duty m combat That night I began to pack hastily, resolving at the same time to take mv wife and little one-year-old daughter back towards Georgia where they, could be among re a-Hves. a-Hves. As I packed and arranged or the furniture to be shipped I still had my exalted feeling of victory. When I go int0 bed' Very 'aLe' thought 1 would drop right off to eep But as my mind relaxed for the first time after the orders had Leen received, I felt myself come . Jnnlete wakefulness. I even at Up td. for I had realized for Te first time what I had done. drHbe haV,6 It de k at Victorville or love of ad-nebmmvLlf out of rroWrdnder.uUoh of sta, mg home with my family 1 about to leave that gin |