Viewing page 20 of 85

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Capt James R McCloskey

Ladies and Gentlemen:
The [[crossed out]]307th[[/crossed out]] Bomb Group, to which I was attached, was stationed in Hawaii for a time. [[crossed out]]During this time we[[/crossed out]] My first combat mission was the Christmas Eve raid on Wake Island, December 23 and 24, exactly one year to the day after the Japs had captured it.
Some time later the Group moved into the South Pacific, the Solomon[[crossed out]]s[[/crossed out]] Islands. It was very hard to get equipment for the camp down there, [[crossed out]]I but[[/crossed out]] but I think we set up the best camp in those islands. It was the first one in this area, and Major Jarvis received the Legion of Merit for it.
No one can realize the amount of equipment it takes to maintain just one bomber [[crossed out]]gun[[/crossed out]] group such as ours. Beside all the material for the camp itself, each plane requires a ground crew of 7 to 10 men for maintenance, [[crossed out]]all[[/crossed out]] working 23 hours a day. The average group replaces 20 or 30 engines every month.
Thousands of parts are used every month, either worn out or shot to pieces; all of these are very necessary and very expensive. All this equipment for the camps and [[crossed out]]I[[/crossed out]] these valuable parts [[crossed out]]are purchased through[[/crossed out]] can be had only when the people back home will put all they can into War Bonds. Without these things it would have been impossible for [[crossed out]]out[[/crossed out]] our group to complete as many of the [[crossed out]]the number of[[/crossed out]] missions successfully as they did. During the year I spent, I completed 55 missions in a B-24, and was fortunate in not losing [[crossed out]]either the plane or[[/crossed out]] a crew member or the plane in any of the 20 contacts with Jap Zeroes or the 42 times we encountered opposition for enemy antiaircraft. My crew was credited with five Zeroes during our operational flights. During the year my crew and I flew "Man-o-War", our B-24, we flew 800 hours, and [[crossed out]]p[[/crossed out]] approximate 160 miles per hour. That makes a total of some 128,000 miles, or a distance of moe than five times around the world.
Although the average conception of combat is being [[intercepted?]] by the enemy and the ensuing fight, in my estimation, the greatest enemy was the condition[[crossed out]]s[[/crossed out]] under which we were forced to live and work. The runways were poor;