Routine

We flew patrols every third day, and made 27 missions while on duty in the South Pacific.  We flew to Borneo, the Philippines, Los Negros, Leyte, and many more places.  At Los Negros, I was standing with a crew member, and a Japanese plane strafed the camp at Owi Island.  That man was hit by enemy fire which broke his hand.

One crew ran out of gas and had to ditch their plane.  The next day, a crew went out to find them and was unsuccessful.  We went out the next day and located four men on a life raft.  We radioed their position and circled until a PBM Mariner seaplane picked them up.  We located another group on life rafts a long way from the base.

The Japanese occupied part of the island at Morotai.  A fence divided our camp from theirs.  Our guys would put stones in tin cans and hang them on the fence so that they could hear if any Japs would try to come over to our side at night.  In the morning, the stones would be gone and a note put in the can, “Americans are stupid.”  There was also a native compound off limits to military except for medical personnel.

At Leyte, the Taclobin airstrip was metal mesh laid over sand.  Our plane had 3,542 gallons of gas, full gear, and guns and bombs, which made it almost impossible to get the plane airborne.  Our very capable pilot did a fantastic job of maneuvering and getting the plane off and back safely.  The weight of the plane and moving mesh was an overwhelming and dangerous task.

Robert C. Binkley