Pearl Harbor

Called Lewis at Pan Am this morning and he told me that the Navy department had called off the deal for pilots. They had been interested in me, but now everything was off. Damn, well I never get out of this detested Navy. The cursed Bureau pulled the same kind of a trick time after time last year with the Central Aircraft Corporation when they were trying to hire pilots (myself included) for duty in China (A.V.G.’s).

The squadron asked for four Patrol Plane Commanders to volunteer for two or more months duty in the Southwest Pacific combat area — i.e. the Solomon Islands. I jumped at the chance along with Jackson, Long, and Rothenburg. We’ll have four old PBY-5s from Kaneohe to take down. Being the senior PPC I’ll be in charge of the flight — quite a feather in my cap. Here you go, Nolan, back into the thick of it —yeeeow!