When\ndid you arrive in the China-Burma-India Theater?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, we arrived in Karachi in January of \u201944. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nyou were a replacement pilot, not with the original unit?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. In Karachi they had a field called Landhi Field\nand they still had P-40s at the time and the instructors were all of the\noriginal AVG pilots that were working with Chennault: \u201cTex\u201d Hill, Dallas\nClinger. They were fantastic instructors. And we got about forty hours in the P-40\nbefore we joined our unit in combat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Where\ndid you join your unit?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Up in the Assam part of India. The name of it was\nSookerating and they had A-36s. So we were operating out of a tea plantation.\nWe had a single strip which was made out of cement and we got some actual\ntraining there before we joined our unit for combat. And from that point there\nin the Assam Valley, we moved into Burma, just off the Burma Road, a 3,500-foot\nstrip, crushed stone for surface. We were flying A-36s at this point in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Was\nthat at Tingkawk Sakan?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. I flew my first combat mission on May 20th of\n\u201944. I was a second lieutenant, just another pilot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nwere the living conditions like at Tinkawk Sakan?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, very primitive. We were there during the monsoon\nseason and we had mud up to our ankles. Our quarters were nothing but a\ntarpaulin over the quarters and a mosquito net down the side and that was it.\nVery primitive. We were on C-rations primarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How\nabout the weather? It rained a lot?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right. Monsoon season. Plenty of rain. All of\nus suffered from prickly heat. If you\u2019re not familiar with that, it\u2019s when as\nsoon as you put your parachute on, it hurts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How\ndid that affect your operations?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, it didn\u2019t. We were young and we loved to fly and\nwe were there to just do our part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did\nthe monsoon affect your operations?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, well, that\u2019s why we moved from Sookerating to\nBurma, it was because of the weather. We didn\u2019t have any approaches or anything\nlike that made up for weather, so by moving into Burma we alleviated a lot of\nproblems that would normally relate with weather. It was hairy. You\u2019d be coming\nback from a mission and it\u2019s all fogged in and you\u2019re trying to find the strip.\nYou don\u2019t have any electronic things to help you get there. And you\u2019d be going\naround and then you\u2019d catch a glimpse of it and chop the power and dive on in\nand land. Usually you\u2019re up there with three or four other guys and you\u2019d hit\nthe wash off their airplanes and wonder where the hell they were. You couldn\u2019t\nsee them. It was a hairy operation, believe me. But we didn\u2019t lose anybody\nbecause of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\nsounds pretty risky.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was, no question about it. We were only about\nfifteen minutes from where we were operating in support of Stilwell\u2019s troops \u2013\nthe Chinese troops at Myitkyina. And once we finished up that Myitkyina\nCampaign, that was the end of the Japanese resistance in Burma, and so we moved\non into China from that point in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nyour unit\u2019s primary mission in Burma was close air support for Stilwell\u2019s\ntroops?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right. That, and, of course, a lot of interdiction: in\nknocking down the bridges and stuff of that nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\ndid the Japanese use for transportation in that part of Burma?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They had railways primarily. We controlled the Burma\nRoad. In fact, the strip that the engineers built for us was only right off the\nBurma Road, Tingkawk Sakan: a 3,500-foot strip of stone and so forth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nmost of your interdiction was focused on Japanese rail?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well that, plus we were close air support for\nStilwell\u2019s troops. He was in charge of all the Chinese. And then we had\nMerrill\u2019s Marauders and we provided close air support for them too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How\nwas that support coordinated?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was coordinated through the intelligence section of\nour squadron and our group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nessentially the guys on the ground would radio back if they needed support and\nthe intelligence section would inform you on when and where it was necessary?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right, right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did\nyou have radio contact with the Marauders or other ground troops when you were\nin the air?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n No. Well, yeah. They would have a forward air\ncontroller or somebody that would tell us what they wanted on the radio so that\nwe\u2019d go and we\u2019d hit the right spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did\nthe Japanese ever try to jam the radio or pass wrong information?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n No, not to my knowledge. Never.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How\nwere you briefed?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We were briefed ahead of time and they\u2019d tell us what\nthe primary objective was for that day and many times we would fly three\nmissions. We were only fifteen minutes from Mytikyina from Tingkawk Sakan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How\nlong would an average mission last then?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In those days from Tingkawk Sakan to Myitkyina and\nback were about fifteen to twenty minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Are\nthere any missions that stand out in your memory?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. I got shot down on May 5th, 1945, but this was\nover in China. I had spent all morning putting my name on the airplane: brand\nnew Mustang, \u201cD\u201d model. We just had started getting the \u201cD\u201d model in. It had\nthe advantage over the other Mustangs in that the \u201cD\u201d model had six\nfifty-caliber machine guns versus the others with four, you know. And, anyway,\nI spent all morning putting my name on it and in the afternoon I got shot down.\nI got hit in the coolant system. I got it up to about 3,500 feet, then I went\nover the side and pulled the parachute. Luckily, I was in friendly territory at\nthe time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Was\nthis when you were flying out of Xi\u2019an?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right, Xi\u2019an. Yeah. Did you get the squadron history\nthat Meyer Newell sent you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes.\nDid you ever encounter Japanese fighters during your missions?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t, no. Nope, never did. We provided escort for\nGeneral Stilwell on several occasions. He had a C-47, DC-3, whatever you want\nto call it, and we\u2019d have a flight of four Mustangs going along, drifting back\nand forth, in case the Japanese tried to shoot him down. They never did, so we\ndidn\u2019t get any action. That one mission when they all went to Hankou, they did,\nbut I didn\u2019t make it. I was back somewhere else ferrying an airplane, so I\nmissed that one. Out in China we went out a couple times as escorts for B-24\nbombers. On one occasion, I think I flew six hours. We had trouble finding the\ntarget because of weather and they ended up dropping on radar information. And\nwe never did see any Japanese airplanes though. It was a long flight. It gets\nkind of tiresome when you\u2019re sitting there for six hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nwas your unit\u2019s primary mission when it got to China?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Interdiction was primary in China \u2013 working on the\nrailroads. My claim to fame was eighteen locomotives in one flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\none flight?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right. Flight of four, we got eighteen. Another\nflight of four I got twelve, but I lost a man on that one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nwas the standard practice for attacking locomotives?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, nothing other than just diving down and shooting\nthem. I always went for the engineer because I figured they were harder to\nreplace than the engine was. You know what I\u2019m talking about. You got to train\npeople to be able to operate locomotives. So if you\u2019re going to knock it out,\nwhy go for the locomotive? Go for the guy that\u2019s running it. Then you work it\nover after that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Were\nyou operating along the line between Beiping and Hankou then?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n No, we operated out of Xi\u2019an. From Xi\u2019an if you go out\nto the northeast, you come to the Yellow River, that runs from the north to the\nsouth and then west to the east and they had four different lines of railroads at\nthat point that ran from Beiping right back down to Xi\u2019an. So when we would go\nout we\u2019d do a sweep. Whenever we\u2019d find one \u2013 in one particular town there were\nthree locomotives there, so we got all three of them. That was the day I think we\nended up with eighteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going\nback to Burma: what were the big differences between the A-36 and the P-51?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, the biggest one I think was firepower. The A-36\nhad two nose guns that were supposed to fire through the propeller. Well they\nliterally flew through the propeller so we had to stop using them. Also, the\nA-36 had dive brakes in the wings, you deploy them when you dive in to control\nyour airspeed and so forth. But we couldn\u2019t use them because one would come out\nand one wouldn\u2019t and they\u2019d try to corkscrew you into the ground. So we had\nthem wired off so we couldn\u2019t use them. Other than that, the best altitude for\nthat A-36 was considered to be three thousand feet above sea level. Whereas\nwith the Mustang it was up to twenty-five thousand. We went from, like I said,\ntwo guns in each wing with the A-36 \u2013 we ended up with three in each wing with\nthe Mustang: pretty good firepower, all those fifty-caliber machine guns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nother ordnance would you use on missions?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Normally five hundred-pounders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even\nfor close air support?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right, you\u2019d use them for close air. And then we got\nto drop some bombs that we normally associated with the Navy. They had\ntremendous blast effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Depth\ncharges?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right, depth charges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With\nweapons like that, how close to friendly lines could you provide close air\nsupport?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A couple hundred yards. We had to be careful because\nwe didn\u2019t want to drop them on our own troops. They would mark the target with\nsmoke and then say, \u201cOkay, hit the smoke.\u201d If you did that, then nobody got\nhurt other than the Japanese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nwould you say was your unit\u2019s significance to the war in Burma?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well you know what happened when the war was over.\nChiang Kai-shek and his forces were in combat to take over the China Theater\nand these days they\u2019ve got them over on Taiwan. You know, while I was in China,\nyou\u2019d never see anyone on the highway going anywhere because there was nowhere\nto go. You would spot, encounter all kinds of different airplanes, different\npositions out beyond the rice paddies. There were some of us that would see\nanything from a PT-17 Steerman, to a P-40, or what have you. They were stocking\nthose up getting ready to do battle once we moved out from the war and came\nhome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nyou\u2019re saying they were sitting tight, waiting for the Americans to finish up\nthe war with the Japanese so they could go to war with the Communists?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When\ndid you return to the United States?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well the war was over in August of \u201945 and I came home\nshortly thereafter. I can\u2019t remember what the airplane was, I think it was a\nC-54, but it might have been something else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did\nyou stay in the Air Force after the war?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n No, I got out in \u201946 and got back in in \u201950. And I\nstayed in the Air Force from \u201950 on and in 1972 I retired as a full colonel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nwas talking to a pilot from the 529th, Robert Austin, and he said he knew you\nfrom later in his career.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, Bob Austin is a good friend. Bob and I talk periodically\n\u2013 every couple months. We\u2019re good friends. We used to play handball together or\ntalk about China. We both flew \u2018105s in Vietnam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nmust have been interesting having a career spanning all the way from the\nearly-model Mustangs all the way to the F-105.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, it was. I\u2019m going to mail you a copy of my\nresume which shows you what I did and what airplanes I flew. And I\u2019ll also send\nyou a copy of the commendation we got in the 528th \u2013 Presidential Citation. I\ngot a copy of that and I\u2019m going to send that to you. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interview by Daniel Jackson, January 13, 2009 When did you arrive in the China-Burma-India Theater? Well, we arrived in Karachi in January of \u201944. So you were a replacement pilot, not with the original unit? Yeah. In Karachi they had a field called Landhi Field and they still had P-40s at the time and the…<\/p>\n