August 19, 1942 (Wednesday)

Pearl Harbor

Returned Marion’s “lost” shorthand book to her sister Jean before returning to the base this morning.

Watch the beach crew haul in my plane for the trip. It came over from Kaneohe this morning — a PBY-5B so I got a pretty good crate after all.

Three more planes are going to the Solomons on the first of September. Heard also (confidentially) the whole of Patwing Two is going to move into the Southwest Pacific — that means 23, 24, 44, and 51. 21 is already down there while 22 was destroyed along with my old Squadron 101, and 102, earlier in the war. I’ll be right back in my old stomping ground — the Indies and Australia.

Wrote Noje yesterday congratulating him on his marriage to Lynne. He didn’t pick the best time, considering that is going to England with B-26s any day now, but love and rational reasoning don’t go together.

A bunch of the pilots blossomed out in boots today. If the style goes any further, I can say that I started by myself a new style of dress for patrol plane pilots.