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pg. 110

Some of the boys are celebrating the fourth of July tonight with a bit of brew and some choral work.  Anything to escape momentarily.

And so to bed.

5 July 1945

The apparent distruction which the fighters visited upon the airfield near Tokyo was appalling.  When they returned it was disclosed they had been lured to a dummy airfield.  The whole island - the fighter boys were embarrassed.

Understand the PBJ boys will moving to Okinawa shortly and that several squadrons of P-47's will be based here.  The rivalry between the P-47's and P-51's will be interesting to observe.  The entire island will be one large aircraft carrier.

The new men from Team 17 are shaping up and being polished off.  Fresh from the States they follow everything to the letter.  During their operations one can almost hear the pages of the textbook turning.  Their procedure was perfect when they are going, for want of a better phrase, "according to plan".  Yes they are good - for operations in the States, with one plane at a time and with a pilot who has flown GCA.  Given an unexpected situation, given two ships at a time, they are lost.  Where common sense is the only guide,