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me and said that he was sending me to the hospital in Yokohama. I was adamant - the S.S. Ainsworth had arrived and I was 4 days from departure. Captain Ames told me that I had appendicitis and if I was on board ship without an operating room I would probably die. He then told me that he was in charge of air transportation to the States and he would fly me home, arriving not far behind the Ainsworth. He wrote out the order on a piece of paper and shoved it in to my shirt pocket.

The ambulance trip was slow and miserable. I arrived at the hospital late at night and was given some pills and a shot. Soon they put me on a table and gave me a spinal block. The pain and the lower half of my body disappeared. It was just after midnight when Dr. Carl F. Fuqua, a 1st lieutenant from Texas, began the operation. Dr. Fuqua wore glasses and I could see the reflection of my abdomen perfectly. I watched the scalpel make the incision. Then the the clamps pulled the incision open and were clipped to the sheet, and there on his forceps was my appendix. I didn't last long enough to see him snip it off. I started to perspire and a nurse bathed my head with cold wet cloths. I was told the next day that my appendix would have burst within an hour. I never told them that I could see my own surgery despite the barrier they had erected on my chest.

Within a short time I was ready to go home but the Army doesn't release anyone until they are "combat ready". They did let me have a pass so a couple of us walked over a small wooded hill to the rail station and went to Yokohama. They released me a little early when I showed them the orders from Captain Ames. I was released on 28 July and sent to the Air Transport Command building in downtown Tokyo. The ATC was next to the Dai Ichi building which served as Army General Headquarters, just across the street from the Imperial Palace. I walked across the ancient bridge over the moat to the iron gates but could not enter the palace grounds. We visited the Diet building and went up to the top where the legislator's governing chambers were. The chambers occupied the entire top of the building - the roof was like a pyramid and the seats were green velvet, theater style but at a steep angle. One day I walked out onto the second floor balcony of the ATC building just in time to see a large limousine with small American flags on both the front fenders pull up in front of GHQ. The Army driver jumped out, opened the back door, and snapped to attention with a salute. At that moment General Douglas MacArthur zipped out of GHQ, the driver closed the door, and he was gone! I had seen the Supreme Military Commander from about twenty yards away.

That evening I went to the Ernie Pyle Theater. It was at the top of the building and there was an open air deck adjacent to the theater. There I found three of my old photo school and aerial gunnery school buddies, Harry Cassidy, Henry Cohn, and Robert Dupar. They had been flying with the 20th Recon Squadron, an aerial mapping group. By now we were all buck sergeants. Their group was starting a three year project and I was asked to join.

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