I just read more of the postings attributed to you and have come to the
decision that you're a hell of a story teller. Do you write? Do you
publish? Your memory of things past is phenomenal. I discovered during
the reading that we have much in common ... I, too, was born in January
('24). I, too, was in the Army Air Corps, in the 9th Fighter Group, 366th
Fighter Squadron. I never pissed under the fire truck ... only because I
was not attached to the salvage crew. I was a radio/radar technician and
operator.
I, too, rode one of those nasty LST corks, across the English Channel in
dead of night, drove a jeep which I had completely waterproofed, off it's
ramp in such complete darkness that we couldn't see if we were going into
fifteen feet of surf or not. Needless to say, we all had our fingers
crossed while we took turns looking down to see if we would drown and
looking up at what appeared to be a Fourth of July Celebration in the sky
... fortunately they were all air bursts with only considerable flack
falling at speed around us ... and the water was non existent. We drove,
very slowly, off the ramp onto dry sand. All in all it turned out to be a
good night.
We were the first Air Corps unit to set up a field, six days after D-Day.
One more thing we share, nearly. Your adams apple wound. One night we sat
in our pyramidal tent playing a little blanket poker when an air attack
occurred. At the moment we learned about the imminent attack I had leaned
back to get a pack of cigarettes from my duffel and, just as we all heard
an explosion, I saw the top of our tent jump strangely. At about the same
time I felt something at my inner left thigh and had no idea what it was
... I was just happy not to be in pain. When I looked my leg it was
evident that a small piece of shrapnel had penetrated the tent and then a
fold of my fatigues, very close to an important and necessary piece of
anatomy. I wasn't touched ... and after seeing the location of the small
hole in my fatigues ... I was pleased!
Dick
Send comments to Dan Machesky at dan@beesky.com
Or to Ray Beebe at raybeebe@tir.com