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pg.63

the GCA program in the Pacific and letters of thanks have been sent to Washington by the bigwigs in the 21st Bomber Command and General Moore of the 7th Fighter Command.It seems that everyone has seen thosel letters and radiograms but us. He spoke glowingly but vaguely of ratings for us... DiYoung would make an excellent salesman.

This afternoon I went up to the second airfield and spotted Ed's plane on the line. He was standing on a wing up to his elbows in grease working on an engine. The afternoon I went over to see him at the 334th Stations Complement Squadron area. As we talked a large force of B-29's flew north passing over the island. I returned to my tent rather late, Mathis' crew was on duty, it was zero-zero and Agate Base expected the big planes, 550 of them, to be back about five a.m. I was relieved to hear the other crew would be on duty until 8 a.m. I went to bed secure in the knowledge that the other crew would catch it for the first time. I felt sorry for them.

26 May 1945

This morning it happened again. The first crew had to handle only one plane, a B-17 Air Sea Rescue ship with a motorboat on the underside of the fusilage and that was early last night when the visibility and ceiling wasn't too bad. When we relieved them this morning we were handed four B-29's in distress. Usual Iwo weather, zero-zero, and the usual crowd of brass was gathered around Darkie. In addition the radio people were there to make an on the spot recording of what was