“Button,” Espiritu Santo

Lay in bed early this morning and watched the pigs and cows rooting around just outside the hut. One large family of porkers had a feast on a pile of old and rotting fruit from our hut. They gorged themselves, in a cacophony of squeals and grunts, on papaya, green oranges, avocados, and limes.

Wendy Suydam failed to return from patrol this evening. Last message from him at 1510 gave us an ETA of 1545 and said he was coming in on three engines, so he must’ve come down within sight of the island as the weather was OK (for a change). Still, none of us can understand what in hell could’ve happened. That makes five planes lost out of 15 (12 from VP-51, three from VP-14). 10 planes to go, and those are getting frayed around the edges.