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79 CHAPTER FOUR “Second Lieutenants Are Expendable” at amberley field, george parker and fourteen fellow pilots of the Polk group received some welcome news on the morning of Tuesday, January 20. They were being ordered to Lowood Field, some fifteen miles northwest of Amberley, for a few days of extensive combat and tactical training. Afterwards they would be going north to the combat zone.1 That afternoon Parker took up one of the newly assembled P-40s for an hour, the first time he’d been in one in almost two months. To Parker, “it felt really good to sit in that old cockpit again and feel that powerful engine pull you into the sky.” Some of the others, including Butch Hague—also selected for the Lowood detail—were up also and flying P-40s for the first time that day. Even Bryce Wilhite finally got to go up in a plane, albeit not a P-40. Lt. Bob Ruegg of the 27th Bomb Group offered him a ride in one of the newly assembled A-24s that Ruegg was test flying. With Wilhite in the back seat, Ruegg took the dive bomber around the nearby city of Ipswich for half an hour and then went out near Amberley Field for a practice dive, a frightening experience for the novice pursuiter.2 But for the others at Amberley not picked to go to Lowood or offered A-24 rides, the routine at the field continued, mainly involving uncrating and assembling P-40s in the heat of the Australian summer. Vern Head was ordered to report to headquarters building for duty as personnel officer, despite knowing nothing about personnel administration.3 That evening eight newly arrived pursuiters, along with eight crew chiefs and eight armorers, reported in at Amberley. They had left San Francisco on December 27 on the transport Mormacsun for the Philippines but had been diverted to Sydney, Australia. When they reached Sydney on January 18, how- 80 Chapter Four ever, the ship could not be unloaded of its sixty-seven P-40Es and one C-53 because of a dock strike. It then moved up the coast to Brisbane, arriving on January 20. The pilots and their crews spent that night in Brisbane before moving out to Amberley the next day.4 One of the eight, David Latane, had been assigned to Selfridge Field after graduating in 41-G at Maxwell Field, Alabama, and had gotten in six and one-half hours in P-40s before being transferred on December 17 to Moffett Field, California. A week later he was ordered to sail for the Philippines. Another of the group, Dick Suehr, along with the six others, had been ordered to the Philippines from the 8th Pursuit Group at Mitchel Field, New York, where they had been assigned following graduation on October 31 in the class of 41-H at Craig Field, Selma, Alabama.5 The next day Wilhite was up again, once more in an A-24. This time Gus Kitchen—one of the 41-H casual pilots off the Holbrook selected for A-24 training—was the pilot. Kitchen flew on the right wing of a three-ship element . It was the roughest ride Wilhite had ever experienced. After climbing to ten thousand feet in the bumpy air, and with difficulty keeping in formation , Kitchen cruised out over the ocean and dived on a target picked by the element leader. When Kitchen pulled out of the dive after passing over the target, blood poured from Wilhite’s nose; his head felt as if “a small charge of explosives has been set loose in it.” After several more dives, Kitchen was obliged to take Wilhite back. “The hospital says I’ll be all right, but that I wasn’t built for a dive bomber,” he recorded in his diary that day.6 As one of the fortunate ones selected for the Lowood training, George Parker was not reduced to accepting offers to fly back seat in an A-24 for flying experience. Up at 0400 and following a preflight check of his P-40E, he joined several others for two and one-half hours of practicing “scooting through clouds” and maneuvers. On landing, he and the other Lowood bunch were ordered to pack in preparation for leaving at 1300. They rushed to pack their foot lockers and supply boxes to leave behind for storage; only necessities were allowed for the trip. It was 1500 before they...

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