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271 Chapter 19 Halfway to Forty Bing Crosby was one of the most popular performers among men in the service.1 His radio broadcasts raised morale and inspired Americans at home and overseas. He often broadcast his Kraft Music Hall radio show from military bases across the United States, and during his shows, Bing talked to America about rationing plans, helped people understand them, and won their support. He toured with war bond drives and traveled to the front to sing for American troops. Bing performed songs written especially for branches of service and sometimes certain units, and while two fine new radios intended for the 42nd Squadron’s Officers Club and Enlisted Men’s Day Room lay at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, Bing broadcast a song saluting the Seventh Air Force. The song was rough, and Bing said so just before singing it.2 The song described unbounded death and destruction rained upon the Japanese by the Seventh Air Force. The lyrics were written the day before recording for the broadcast, so it was quick and unpolished, but the men of the Seventh who were lucky enough to hear it were thrilled. “Seventh Air Force Tribute” was not intended for commercial sale, but it was cut into a disc from the broadcast recording. Without the record, many aircrew and ground support men of the Seventh would never have heard the song. It was a hit when it reached Guam, and each 272 Finish Forty and Home unit altered the song’s lyrics, replacing references to the Seventh Air Force with their own squadron number. 34 Six days after reaching Guam, Scearce flew with Captain Stay and eleven other Liberator crews to hit the Japanese airfield at Colonia on the island of Yap. A ship from the 98th dropped its bombs in the water because of a bad bombsight adjustment, but the remaining eleven B-24s had no trouble hitting the target. Ten planes struck the runway with frag clusters and General Purpose bombs while Captain Stay’s plane dropped six 500-pound bombs on the anti-aircraft battery just north of the airfield. Most bombing results were obscured by clouds, but the string of bombs across the anti-aircraft gun emplacement was confirmed. The Japanese response was weak with inaccurate anti-aircraft fire, just thirty-six black flak bursts and there were no enemy aircraft at all.3 On touch down at Guam, Captain Stay’s plane blew a hydraulic hose on the right landing gear. From his window at the radio operator’s table Scearce saw the brownish fluid run down the strut onto the right main wheel and watched as the wheel splattered a dark streak on the underside of the wing. With the hydraulics out, the brakes were gone, a serious problem if they had been on a short runway. But at Guam’s Agana airfield the plane just rolled long until it slowed and Captain Stay carefully taxied it to a hardstand to park. This October 28, 1944, strike mission, six hours, twenty-five minutes from take-off to touch down, was the shortest bombing mission Scearce would fly, and it was his only mission to Yap. It had been a long eleven months since Scearce’s last strike mission, but now he had seven. Orders awarding the unit Good Conduct Medals, which were dated August 5, 1944, finally caught up with the squadron after they reached Guam. Headquarters also posted orders dated September 10, 1944, Halfway to Forty 273 awarding Second Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster to Air Medals to some men and Third Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters to others. Oak Leaf Clusters were awarded to men who already had the medal but earned the decoration a second or third time, men like Sergeant Scearce, originally awarded the Air Medal on May 7, 1943. The order cited “meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flights over enemy controlled territory during the period 17 April 1943 to 24 April 1943.” The Air Medal order listed everyone on Joe Deasy’s original crew along with others who had been in action on those dates, the very first strike missions flown by the 11th Group’s Liberators, flying from Funafuti to Nauru. These medals didn’t mean a lot to the men who had been around a while. Just being there, following orders, and simply surviving seemed to be the key to receiving them. Harold Brooks, Scearce’s buddy killed on the April 1943 mission to Nauru...

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