John Carmichael Part 4

The War Ends

Just about the time the war ended, we flew down to Rangoon, the capitol of Burma, and saw the beautiful golden domed Pagodas. It was an unusual sight. We buzzed the city and saw the natives looking and pointing to us. They hadn't seen many airplanes buzzing their city. We also saw several statues of Buddha, and some were gold plated also. Since Burma was renamed Myanmar, the name of Rangoon is now Yangon. You can only wonder why the leaders in that good country, could turn into a dominant, cruel society. There is no free speech there now, only tyranny.

While I was over there, I participated in the China Offensive, Central Burma, and India Burma Campaign. For my service I received the American Theater Campaign Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Victory Ribbon, Air Medal, with two Oak Leaf Clusters, One Service Stripe, Distinguished Flying Cross and two Overseas Service Bars, and the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars. I had flown 543.55 combat hours and 572.50 total overseas flying time, and 298 total missions. There is no telling how many hours, and combat missions, I would have flown if I had not gone into the hospital.

The British Government wanted to award us their highest British award, for the things we did for them. General Hap Arnold refused it, and said that we had only done what we came to Burma to do. That made us all pretty mad; but we couldn't say anything about it. After all, he was the Commanding General of the Air Corps. He never had to fly endless hours in some of the trickiest conditions as any place in the world, or eat the junk we had to eat, with so little hours of sleep and rest. I still think that was unfair to all of us enlisted men that did so much, and were not allowed to get any recognition for it. My mother said we were vaguely mentioned in the Waco paper one time, and she cut out the article, and saved it for me. It was a very short article, and did not tell much about what we were doing or what we had accomplished. It did have a picture of one of our airplanes, in flight. From what Barbara Tuchman wrote in her book, I got the impression that “We, the Fourth Combat Cargo Group” did more to win that war than any other factors in the war.

AWAITING OUR ORDERS

We were in the town of Myitkyina one night, at a bazaar, and while standing there drinking a coca cola, I happened to look up at my buddy, Elmer Book’s collar, and I saw a large Centipede crawling along his collar, just fixing to crawl down into his shirt. I hit the thing and knocked it to the ground. In another few seconds the thing would have been down inside his shirt. He turned around and asked what I hit him for? I stepped on the centipede and killed it, and then showed it to him. He turned slightly pale, and then he thanked me. The thing was over seven inches long, and well over an inch wide. That is the only time I ever saw one of those in the time I was over there. We used to watch the snake charmers blowing their flutes, and the large Cobra’s weaving in the big baskets, and sometime even out of their baskets, on the ground.

After we got the word of the war with Japan ending, we had time to sit around a little while and reflect on what we had been through, and write happy letters rather than remorseful ones. We were very happy to still be in one piece, and able to go back home. We were notified that we would return to the states by ship. While we were waiting, we had a lot of fly-overs by the P-38 Lightning’s. Their pilots would buzz our camp and airstrip as low to the ground as they could, and you could actually feel the wind that they stirred up as they flew over. Some of us had to hit the ground, and flatten out, as they flew so low. We could see them laughing, and waving, as they were having a big time doing this. They were such pretty airplanes, and it was a thrill to watch them buzz the earth, and pull up into a steep climb.

We had to turn in all of our flight clothing, and all the planes were to be left in India and destroyed. They took all of our guns, and I guess they shipped them back to the states. We had to lay our blankets out on the ground and put what we were allowed to carry back to the states, on top of the blanket for inspection. All other items were thrown in a pile and eventually burned. They wanted to be sure we were carrying only what they allowed us to carry. A few of the men put their flight jackets, under the blanket and covered them over with their blankets. They got away with it. What a waste of clothing and equipment. That is the way the armed forces work. It’s no wonder it costs so much to supply them.

They were not going to give these to those poor Indians and Burmese who needed them badly. We heard that they burned everything we left, except our guns. I heard that even the airplanes were destroyed, and India could have really used them. They were supposed to have junked the P-38’s, the P-51's, the P-47's, all the large C-54 cargo planes, the smaller, B-25 bombers, and all the other planes used there. I don’t know of, or remember any large bombers being used in the C B I. There may have been some B-24 Bombers; but I never saw one being flown there. If they were used, it was to fly the “Hump” as they could fly at those high altitudes since the B-24 had an oxygen supply.

We were flown back to Karachi, and had to wait two days, for the USS Richardson, to be supplied, to take us back to the states. While we waited, we either went into the city or we sat around and played cards. Five of us sat in a small game of five-card stud, and there was a black soldier in the game with us. I held my own, and after several hands, I still was not losing. I knew when to hold them, and when to fold them, as the song goes. On one hand, the black soldier drew two, and I drew two. He bet ten dollars, and a couple more called and stayed. I also called and raised him ten dollars. He was puzzled; but he just knew he had the winning hand, so he called me. All the others dropped out. He laid down a full house. I laid down four deuces and a ten. He really came out of his seat fast. He said, "that's the first time in all the time I have been playing poker that I have ever seen anyone draw four of a kind, in five card stud.” I won fifty dollars on that hand. He quit, and the game broke up. Later, on board the ship, I sat in a ten-cent ante game, of five-card stud, and drew four Aces. No one stayed and all I won was the ante of their forty cents.

Sully met a very nice young lady while we were in Karachi, and she invited him to visit her home to meet her parents. Her father owned a business in Karachi, and they were of the upper class. He was in town to see her each day, and before he knew it he had spent all of his money. This was not a serious relationship, only a casual acquaintance, between two nice people. He asked me to loan him fifteen dollars, which I did, with the promise to send it to me when he was settled back in the states. Well, I never have seen those fifteen dollars, and it has been fifty 58 years ago since I last saw Sully. That’s a pretty long time to wait for a friend to repay me. Sully had a wife and child back in Brooklyn, New York, so I guess he just forgot he owed me. I have a letter he sent me, saying that he was now a pilot for Cities Service Oil Company, and they paid very good salaries. He even bought himself an old airplane, and said he would fly to Texas one day and take me for a flight in it. This never happened. I lived in Amarillo and worked for Colgate at the time. We didn’t stay long in Amarillo, as I just couldn’t take selling soap.

ABOARD THE S. S. RICHARDSON

My luck held aboard the ship, as I was put in charge of the crew that swept the decks. We swept the upper decks, which were the officers and nurses’ decks. The call of “Sweepers, man your brooms”, came over the loud speakers each day. In this way we got three meals a day instead of two, as all non-detail men got. The food aboard ship was so good. We had eaten that junk food so long that if they had fed us just about anything that normal people ate, we would have been happy. We were fed a few cakes and puddings, fresh fruits, and milk, of which we had not had in a year. The seamen, and Navy, always had better food than we had. They had these large freezers, and cold storage lockers, so they could keep fresh foods, indefinitely. I do believe that is one of the enticements the Navy offered to get recruits.

We really enjoyed the view from the upper deck, where a lot of sun tanning transpired, as long as we were in the warmer part of the trip home. Those officers, including the nurses, sure got a lot of privileges that the regular enlisted men didn't get. They had single steel cots to sleep on and we slept in stacked bunks, below the decks, where it was very crowded and hot most of the time. They had special privilege meals, with a few more delicacies, that we didn't get. The enlisted men were not allowed on the two upper decks, and there were guards posted to see that they did not stray higher than the main deck. My crew of sweepers, were the only enlisted men allowed to come and go above the main deck.

A lot of men got seasick on that trip home; but I never experienced that at all. I guess that I was so accustomed to bouncing around in the air over Burma, that it didn’t affect me. The trip across the Atlantic was not the smoothest thing in the world, and it rained nearly every day. It was the middle of November, and the weather was getting cold and stormy. Being in charge of the crew of sweepers, I was allowed to roam the decks at will. I could go all the way to the bow of the boat, where the waves would send their spray over the bow, onto the deck. It was nice and quiet there, and it was nice to see the large waves ahead of the ship. A sight I had never seen before.

One of our Master/Sgts. had gambled a lot each night while in Burma, and had won plenty of money, from all of us enlisted men. He bought up a large quantity of good jewelry, intending to cash the jewels in for a big profit, in the states, and had them in his B-4 bags’ side pocket. Of all the stupid things to do, he opened the bag, and showed the jewels to all of the GI’s around where he bunked. Most of these G I’s were strangers from other branches of the service, as we were not the only ones being shipped back to the states. He had a small padlock on that zippered side pocket, and locked it, and then went up on deck. When he came back, the bag, made of heavy canvas, had been cut open with a knife, and the jewelry was gone.

He reported it to the Captain of the ship; but nothing was ever done to find them, as they could never have searched every man’s luggage. He thought that with his rank, no one would dare steal from him. A fool and his money were soon parted. He had bragged that he lived on one side of the Mississippi River, and the nearest city to him was across the river; but there was no bridge there. He said he was going to build a bridge across the river, so he would not have to drive so far to town. He lost an awful lot of money on those jewels, as he probably had several thousand dollars worth in U S money. He bought them cheap in India. Most of them were rubies and Saffires, with a few emeralds. We had a man in our outfit that worked as a jewel appraiser before he was inducted into the service, and he had appraised them for the Sgt. He said the Sgt. had an awful lot of money tied up in those jewels, as they were of very high quality. No one felt sorry for him, as he had won all of the money from the men in our group. Some of them even laughed when they heard about it. We thought he acted awful high and mighty anyway, with his higher rank.

DISCHARGE AND HOME

We came into port in the New York harbor, and were met at the dock by the Red Cross workers, with milk, hot coffee and doughnuts, as we disembarked. We were loaded onto trucks, along with our bags, and transported to Fort Dix, New Jersey. We were processed there and routed on our way to our place of discharge, which in my case was Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas. I spent two days on the train trip to Fort Sam. After a medical and physical exam, the Officer in charge, and the Red Cross interviewed me. I was given my O.D. uniform, and a duffel bag with a very few clothes, along with fifty dollars to pay my fare home. I was handed my discharge papers, and shuttled out the door. Then I was given a ride to the bus station, so I could return home.

Between the time I was let off, at the bus station, and the time to depart, a ‘Blue Norther’ blew in, and the temperature dropped below freezing. I caught the bus and it was routed through Evant, Texas on its way to Waco. My mother and father had moved from Galveston to Valley Mills, Texas, in the latter part of the war, and I had a sister living in Waco, only twenty one miles from them, so that is where I was heading. The bus engine quit running while we were stopped at Evant, and we had to wait for a bus to be sent from Waco. When it arrived, it was an unheated old school bus, and I thought I would freeze to death before we arrived in Waco. I had spent a year in near, or over, 110-degree weather, and now I was turned out in freezing weather, without a heavy coat of any kind. My blood was very thin, and I could not stand the freezing weather. An elderly lady, sitting beside me offered me her coat, as she could see that I was near freezing. My teeth were chattering and I could not keep my feet from pounding up and down on the floor. The duffel bag arrived the next day in Waco at the bus station. So ended my journey to the CBI war.

I have never regretted volunteering to go overseas in the service. I always was very proud to have served in the Air Corps. I am a person who thought that I could do just as much as any man, and that my five foot six inch size, and 150 pounds, was just as capable as the much larger men, and I think I proved it. It was a great experience, and I saw parts of the world that I would never have an opportunity to see again.

*Barbara W. Tuchman -- Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-45