Surabaya, Java

Reported to head of naval forces here along with the rest of the fellows from the Polk. While waiting I tried a little native food for breakfast consisting of rice (95 percent) meat, coconut shreds, tiny bean-like roots (very hot), and some things that looked like white worms — all wrapped in a large leaf.

Finally got my orders to VP-101 — located in the suburbs of Surabaya along the harbor entrance — called Moro-krem-bang-an. It’s the Dutch Naval Air Station. Pendola, Lee, and I are in all of the same squadron — poor Pendola — he’s a VOS  pilot. But there’s not a VOS plane to be had.

Knew some of the fellows at the squadron, namely Brown and Baldwin (Pensacola). Brownie I knew pretty well in Seattle last year — we both liked classical records and he had some pretty good ones, which, by the time the war started, had grown to a fair-sized collection. It was, unfortunately, all left to the Japs in Manila. Brownie was shot down in the attack on Jolo in Mindanao — he was in the water 30 hours, finally reaching shore. Picked up by Moros and paddled in native canoes through the Sulu Sea and down the coast of Borneo to a Dutch town.