Unusual Events

   I thought it best that I put some of the crazy things that occurred overseas in a separate section. All items mentioned are actual happenings and not a figment of my imagination. I forgot to mention that prior to leaving India we were told the rain fall during the monsoon season of '43 was 204 inches. That's a lot of water!

   Another episode worth mentioning was the time we had a British intelligence officer talk to us about how to get out of Burma in the event we went down. This was about the time we were flying the Hump across the northern part of Burma. He told us there were tribes in the lower hills that were "head hunters" and white people were considered a special delicacy. In their tribal customs they also consider any person having red hair to be a special God. The punishment for being a red headed white man was to impregnate every female in the village. Of course all the guys wanted to go right out and get their hair dyed. One of the guys did just that. The CO didn't see the humor and had him shave his head.

   I mentioned Bob Willard as being the asst. radio man on the crew. Bob was rather laid back, never being too talkative. One day we were all laying around in the barracks shooting the breeze when the subject came up about the new "flak" helmets we had been issued. The damn things were so thick they weighed a ton and were impossible to wear in a turret. Too my knowledge no one ever wore one while flying. Some were of the opinion they wouldn't stop any kind of a hit, much less a direct hit from a small arms, such as a 45 pistol. Back and forth they argued. Most of us kept our 45's hanging on the end of our cot and the helmet alongside. After various suggestions as to how to prove the helmet's effectiveness, Willard calmly, got up, removed his 45 from its holster, and fired point blank at the helmet. The bullet did not penetrate the helmet, but left a hell of a dent. It then ricocheted off and buried itself in the wall. The "old man" got wind of this episode and passed an order that all 45s would be turned into the ordnance dept. From then on, before each mission, we had to check out a 45.

   Another interesting occurrence took place while Berney and I were cleaning our guns. We were both on top of the plane and had an excellent view of the runway. About 50 yards away a group of women were carrying baskets of rocks on their heads and dumping them at the turnaround circle. Berney commented to me about one of them looking like she was about nine months pregnant. We didn't pay much attention until we heard someone yell. The pregnant one had gone over by a tree and was delivering her baby. She did this with no help from anyone. It seemed like an hour when she got and did something that we couldn't see. Now I realize she was cutting the cord. In just a short time she wrapped the baby in some cloth, placed it by tree, picked up her basket, and went back to work. Strange things do happen in India. It was things like this that kept us going stark raving mad from boredom.

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Men of the 7th Bomb Group