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-117-

'Well, whatta y'know" laughed Cook, "Even the gulls crack up." Then he said "Aah, one of these days I'm gonna quit flying and get me a nice, comfortable safe job."

"Yeah, such as what " asked Kearney sarcastically, "A deck-hand on a submarine?"

"No," grinned Cook, "Something with built in excitement like taming wild flowers."

"Well, I'll tell you my ambition in life," said Phil Parmalee, "And that's to grow the longest, greyest  and stiffest beard of any pilot in the world."

Alas, poor Phil never realized his ambition for it was only a matter of a few weeks when he was killed in North Yakima, in thestate [[the state]] of Washington.

However, at the Emeryville track, Phil Martin, Beachy and I were the only four dho [[who]] didn't have any crackups or were hurt. Three of the others had minor but unpleasant crackups in landing and the other one, Tom Gunn, suffered a serious accident. 

The third fay [[day]] of the Meet, Tom Gunn came in to land and put down beyond the point necessary for him to make his double 'S'. He completed the first 'S' but knowing there wasn't enough room, he struggled hard to try to make the second but success was not with him. One of his wings struck the ground, the plane completely flipped over and Tom was tossed out and smashed to the ground with a sickening thud. For a moment or two we were sure he was a goner.

It was normal procedure to have an ambulance, a doctor, a trained nurse and a Red Cross hospital tent on the field at every meet. They came in damned handy whenever there was a crackup. It was a resurring touch of comfort to know they where there when you took to the air