In 1944, we were now in San Diego waiting to go to the war zone. On a routine flight, San Diego’s airport was fogged in and we had to make an emergency landing at Holtville Desert. It was May 12, 1944, and I became a father to a beautiful baby girl, namely, Carolyn Jane Binkley. I tried to get leave but was denied. I was told we were to leave in two weeks, but it turned out to be two months. In July 1944, we went to Hawaii to deliver a new plane and brought an old one back to San Diego.
On August 15, 1944, in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, we went on a routine patrol. Fifteen minutes from Hawaii, we ran out of gas, and an engine quit. We shot off flares to land at a small island airfield. They opened the field and put the green light on. On the final approach, our second engine quit. The pilot then instructed me to check the duties of the plane captain as he was undependable. There was another time also that I had to check on this guy as he was unreliable and not thorough in his duties. He was not happy about it, but it could have prevented a disaster.
After the war zone, we stayed for a week at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in January of 1945, which had been taken over by the Navy for submarine and air men. (Incidentally, this was the only hotel in Hawaii at that time.) From here we were shipped to the mainland. This was the only time I was on a ship. It took six days on the USS Nassau.
Robert C. Binkley
You Think Too Much! 