Thursday

Another day upon which the roof fell in. Another day on which we were passed up and did not fly the daily mission. The object was supply dumps; and results were not determined as the area was cloudy.

Went to the dispensary for the daily dressing as to the healing hole in my arm. We were paid at 1:00 o’clock. My pay for two months amounted to $104.00. Thirty minutes later our operations clerk came over and told us to pack our baggage. We were transferred! So we collected our odds and ends, carried them to operations where a truck awaited us. We, Lt’s. Fincham, Tolhurst, Staff Sgt’s Russell and Seehorn and myself, loaded our bags on the truck. I went down to the laundry and got our wet wash.

We jolted and bumped our way to the line, where we loaded our baggage and ourselves into plane 208, B-25. Ten minutes later we took off for the Russell Islands.

A truck awaited us, and carried us to the area of the 75th Bomb Squadron. After the usual chow and squabble with the Supply Sgt. and the Barracks Chief of the Quonset huts, Russell, Seehorn and I moved into a Quonset hut with a wooden floor. The first one with that type of floor we’d been privileged to have. We put up our beds and mosquito nets after which we had a welcome shower and went the show. Then we retired for the night.

Sleep was long in coming, though, and I laid awake long after my prayers had been said. There were the usual night interruptions of rats ticking across the floor, a coconut now and then falling from the trees of which there are a grove around us.

An unusual thing happened too. Two ground crew men are in this tent and were also shipped down from Stirling as we were. During the night one of them suddenly gave a horrible moan and said very plainly “Don’t Frank, please don’t. Please don’t, Frank.” The boy was talking in his sleep and professed that he knew of no one named Frank, the next morning. Very odd!

And that’s the size of today.

Notes & Commentary+

¹ Originally sent to the 69th Bombardment, Lt. Fincham’s aicrew of Lt. Tolhurst, and Staff Sgt’s Russell, Seehorn and Gray were now assigned to the 75th Bombardment Squadron. As a replacement crew, they had been in theater for two months and still had no permanent squadron assignment.