Pearl Harbor

Worked on details of flight this morning — charts, quinine pills, sheath knives, etc. Shall probably be based first at the island of Espiritu Santo in the Northern New Hebrides, or possibly on one of the islands in the Santa Cruz group. Where we later change our base to, depends on whether we win or lose.

Heard today, from returning survivors of some of the Solomons’bouts, that the PBY squadrons are having a very bad time down there. One whole squadron has been almost completely wiped out. I’ve howled so many times, but there is no use launching another tirade against the criminals who are responsible for the world’s finest flyers having some of the worlds rottennest planes. Sending PBYs in the fighting zones against enemy aircraft is murder, plain and simple. None of us are afraid to go up against superior aircraft, but the fact that hurts is that we are sacrificing ourselves without doing the enemy any substantial harm. With any kind of decent and modern airplane we could lick the bastards — we’d have at least a 50-50 chance against their planes. Every patrol plane pilot must cry to heaven at least once a day for an A-20A, a B-24, a B-25, or a B-26.

Test hopped my airplane (51-P-5) this afternoon. She’s okay.

Have been reading up on the Solomons, and the surrounding islands. Not very pre-possessing right reading. The islands are ridden with fevers and cannibalism is still extant in many spots. Scratches or wounds refuse to heal and after week turn into ulcers. Shall be fighting, besides Japs, sharks, snakes, mosquitoes, crocodiles, and fever.