V1946G01RL.DOC

Feb 6 1946 Rest Leave, Guam to Hawaii and Back

Shortly after Operation Sunset was underway I was informed I was entitled to go on Rest Leave. That I could fly on a Navigation Training Mission to Hawaii. I jumped at the chance. I had to hurry with short notice and toss things in my bag before being picked up and let off at M-27. We passengers entered through the nose wheel well and worked past the forward gun turret through the bulkhead door into the front Bombay, the floor of the Bombay platform served as passenger quarters. There was nothing to set on so we stood or sat on our luggage or tried to nap on our flight jackets.

We passengers were a mixture of flight and ground personnel and carried as many as could fit comfortably on the front Bombay floor. It was cold and windy as we shifted about but we didn't mind. We ate boned turkey and peaches from gallon cans. I became aware the flight crew were debating about stopping to refuel at Johnson Island when word came back to ask me. I said this is a 30^th Sqd plane and I had no idea, that I presumed the tanks were full when we took off and had no idea if we carried bomb bay fuel tanks in the aft Bombay. I said I presumed they determined what we were carrying as fuel before we took off. They decided to continue and not stop at Johnson Island.

Low on Fuel Word came back that we were running low on fuel and they hadn't picked up Oahu on radar. Others became concerned. I didn't worry until word came back to ask me how accurate the fuel gages were. They should have had 5400 gallons in the main tanks and 1300 in the center wing section for a total of 6700 gallons when we left Guam, The aft bomb bay could carry (2) 640 gal tanks, used for long flights, if we carried any. I told them all tanks were of self sealing rubber construction with unpredictable shapes relative to the fuel measuring instruments, if damaged the interior could swell but none were dip stick calibrated and there was no way to know. It didn't help when I told them it was possible for their tank readings to be off as much as 300 gallons, but that was only a guess. I recommended that they keep the engines on separate tanks and if any began to sputter to kill it and it's counterpart on the other side and transfer any remaining fuel to the good engines. I came to realize this was a green crew who had never flown combat – with little B-29 flight time, and probably never had and engine run out of gas. They really were green if they thought ground engineering officers knew anything about fuel quantity vs range. I said I don’t know a thing about range, but I do know that most crashes on North Field had been with one engine out trying to pull up and go around for another pass with unbalanced power. I said I trust balanced two engine landings and suggested they transfer fuel as require to do that if need be.

The Navigator said we should be there. Radar showed nothing, concern mounted. The pilot had gone into a long descent using altitude to save fuel. Then someone sighted the island, a few moments later radar contact was made. Radar wasn't very dependable in those days. Since I was up front I decided to stay for the landing. As the pilot talked with the tower one of the engines began to sputter. The flight engineer and I exchanged quick glances and he shut it down and started fuel transfer from that tank. An engine on the other side began to sputter as we got into the pattern and it was shut down. I climbed into the Bombardier's seat in the nose, fascinated by the view. We had two fans going smoothly as we came to the runway for touch down.

A thin white line began to show on the blacktop runway strip. My vision watched the black runway widen and the thin white line increase in size as our glide path aimed the window I was looking through at the runway. I kept waiting for the flare out and in the last moments all my instincts tugged at me to get out of the nose before it rammed into the runway blacktop!. The flare out was a relief and I chided myself on poor depth perception. We had made it none to soon.

“Yeah, We need Gas – so we can park”. War Weary M-27 need a bath; Passenger, "What a Relief"

30^th Sqd nacelle number 27 is none on Black -- 28^th Sqd nacelle number M 13 is yellow on black

Halekulani Hotel 1/Lt Landau at Halekulani Cabin

1930's Halekulani cabins where we stayed were removed in 80', termites

Out of Gas We had landed on John Rogers field and the remaining good engines quit before we could taxi to the assigned parking place on nearby Hickam Field, we had to be fueled in order to park; that's cutting it too thin.

Honolulu

Someone made reservations for us at the Halekulani Hotel which was next to the Royal Hawaiian and Moana Hotels on Waikiki beach. It was a beautiful setting with tall palm trees. The next day we took bus rides around the island. We watched kids dive in a lake for coins and went up over the mountains in back of Honolulu. The winds are very strong as they come off the ocean and whip up the mountain slopes. We continued around the coast past Diamond Head back to the hotels.

John Wayne I went to see the Moana Hotel which had a long wide flight of stairs in front. As I started up I saw this big guy that I thought I'd seen before coming down the steps from the hotel. As we passed I recognized him. It was John Wayne!

After a week of taking in the sights we reported in at Hickam Field and went out to preflight the plane. Two of the engines had large mag drops. I figured it was the plugs so we ran them lean and hot for a while to see if they might have been fouled. We decided we'd better change them so after searching the field for a set of new plugs some of us stayed the rest of the day and changed them.

M-27 to the States, us by Boat to Guam

We were about ready to check out M-27 the next morning when we received word to leave the plane, we were to go back by ship. Old M-27 was to be made part of Operation Sunset left for some other crew to fly to the states.

Orders for our "Long Range Navigation and Training Mission" listed the following crew and passengers:

Function	Rank	Name	SN	Assigned to
AC	1st Lt	Almery R Hamblen	0753989	28th Bomb Sqd
P	1st Lt	Frank D Stephens	0787563	28th Bomb Sqd
N	1st Lt	John M Jones	02081476	93rd Bomb Sqd
B	F/O	Worth B Wheelwright	T9678	28th Bomb Sqd
V	1st Lt	James A Mathers	0722953	28th Bomb Sqd
FE	2nd Lt	Bobby R Richardson	0786170	28th Bomb Sqd
RO	S/Sgt	Wilfred W Ellis	39928188	28th Bomb Sqd
G	Sgt	David B Payne	14189237	28th Bomb Sqd
G	Sgt	Edward Patcyk	13188327	28th Bomb Sqd
X	1st Lt	Edmond D Love	088098	93rd Bomb Sqd
X	Capt	Seymour E Latham	0580908	Hq Sqd
X	Capt	Harold K Harvey	0494627	93rd Bomb Sqd
X	1st Lt	Harold J Shirley	0856813	Hq Sqd
X	1st Lt	Darrell W Landau	0878039	28th Bomb Sqd
X	Capt	Thomas E Stout	01012611	Hq Sqd
X	Sgt	Loyd Stroud Jr	34888728	28th Bomb Sqd

Submarines at Pearl Harbor, crews gone home

Crew chief Sgt Stroud had flown there with us, he had no objections so we arranged for him to stay in Hawaii with the plane. He wrote to me some time later that he and M-27 were still there. He said the old timers tell wild tales to the new crews from the states sent to fly the Sunset planes on home, that the green crews are afraid to fly them, if they were afraid of them now they should have seen them during the last two months of the war during the maximum efforts prior to the A Bomb. Ol' M-27 sure looked like she was in need of TLC.

We were assigned quarters on Hickam Field. They were the same buildings that had been strafed and bombed by the Japs in their attack on Pearl Harbor. They still had the pock marks of that event. We were there about another week while others were gathered and orders cut for us to go back by ship. We went out on the town during the afternoon and evening. We'd found a new place called Lao Ye Chow that was very nice although we nicknamed it Lowzy Chow.

We also found a miniature golf course frequented by civilians. A very attractive young lady, a girl, and her mother were there. The girl was cautiously friendly but her mother inhibited our attempts to be conversational. My buddies and I wondered if she was as beautiful as we thought or that we'd just been away from girls for too long.

Lots of time to think of other things

Notice to Report I was told there was a notice on the bulletin board for me to report. Without reporting I found out what they wanted. They were seeking engineering officers on leave to remain at Hickam to see to the repair of planes on their way back to the states. My experience in trying to find plugs revealed what a frustrating job that would be. I didn’t see any sense in volunteering, if they really needed me they could have cut orders, I was no longer wet behind my ears. I wanted to ship home and returning to Guam seemed the quickest way back.

We boarded our return ship from near the submarine docks at Pearl. It was the first time I'd seen submarines from up close. They seemed so small.

Hawaii to Guam

The trip back was very uneventful. The aircraft navigators on board had fun pulling the leg of the ships navigator. They'd show all kinds of interest in what he had to do and they say "My, my, and you have to get all that done in one morning!" Then one of the airplane navigators would turn to another and say "How long do you have to do all that?" Then the other would say, "Oh, about 5 minutes unless we have plenty of gas and then I have lots of time, perhaps 15 minutes."