W45AUTH\DC30P-CD.DOC

BY SCARIEST WAR STORY

Lt Charles A. Davis, AC 30th Sqd, with 19th BG airplane on Iwo Jima, Aug 1945

I was raised in a tiny community in Alaska, called Hope. My education, up to high school, was provided in a one room school house. Then I had to move to Anchorage, find a boarding house and enroll in high school. I got a job working at Merrill Field. I was learning to fly bush airplanes and dreaming about becoming an Air Force pilot.

World War II was in it's second year when two other young fellows and myself took a slow boat to the states, to take the entrance exam for the Air Force. I knew I could fly airplanes, but I was absolutely scared to death of the big city and worried that my small town education would prove inadequate. After taking the exam, by chance and good luck, I passed and was entered into the Air Force Cadet Program.

I felt all alone down in the states. It was so far from home. When mail only arrived and was sent once a month by dog team in the winter, my communication with home was very limited. I worked hard and by good fortune and good luck, I graduated from the cadet program. I felt I was the proudest and luckiest lieutenant in the Air Force.

After graduation, we were allowed a few days off for leave. I missed my family and called my sister who had moved to Seattle with her husband, who was a Colonel in the Signal Corp. I asked if they could stand a new second lieutenant around the house for a little while and they said they would be delighted to have me visit.

After the second day of my visit, they talked me into shining up all my brass and polishing my gold bar, because there was something they wanted to show me. I went to the local grocery store with them and we shopped. When we got up to the checkout counter, I looked up and saw the most beautiful, blue eyed Scandinavian blonde you ever laid eyes on. Coming from the bush country in Alaska, I became speechless and partially paralyzed with excitement.

I was 22 years old, shy and had never asked a girl for a date. Over the next few days I made excuses to go to the grocery store about 15 times a day. Finally I got up nerve enough to ask this beautiful blonde to go out with me.

Her folks allowed her the afternoon off and we went to a matinee show. When we got up to the ticket window I realized I had no money with me. She had to pay for our show tickets. In my mind I thought this was the end, but she realized this kid from Alaska had a lot to learn. She tolerated all my clumsiness and my backwoods ways. I realized this was who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

I left Seattle and was assigned to the B-29 program at the Rattlesnake Bomber Base in Pyote, Texas. After completing our B-29 training, we were assigned to the 19th Bomb Group, 30th Squadron and sent to the island of Guam. We were flying our missions and looking forward to letters from the states. I was in love and everything was going well.

Then one day I realized a shadow was behind my back. There was a navigator clicking right at my heels with my girlfriend. This navigator went to Europe and was shot down on his first mission. He was captured by the Germans and held as a prisoner of war. Our troops had captured his area, and he was sent back home. I was scared to death. He had dated my girl, before we had met and both families thought they would marry after the war. I felt I was lost as he was there and I was in Guam. All of a sudden I got the feeling you can't always trust a navigator.

Left: Lt Charles A. Davis; One room Alaska school house to B-29 Pilot

Right: Mission Accomplished; Blue Eyed Blond becomes Mrs Davis; Eventually, Mother of Three

Then an almost unbelievable break came, we were sent back to the states for squadron league crew training. As soon as we arrived back in the good old USA, I started burning up the telephone lines talking night and day to my sweetie. After a month of talking, I felt there might be a chance after all. I said will you catch the train and come to Los Angeles -- and we'll get married. It took a few days to get a yes. I was really afraid I had lost the battle to the navigator.

She boarded the night sleeper train to Los Angeles from Seattle. Meanwhile, I checked the train schedules, arrival times and route. That train was coming down from the north through the desert, right past our training base at Muroc, California. I had this bright idea. If I got enough soldiers on the tracks, we might be able to stop that train, get my future wife off and then drive together to the wedding chapel. After a few beers, all the guys thought it was a great idea.

At two o'clock in the morning, we all lined up and down the railroad tracks with flash lights, flags and our t-shirts. We kept flagging the train as she came through the desert. Finally, the engineer saw all of us soldiers and decided to stop. The conductor got off and wanted to know what was going on. When we told him we had stopped his train to get a beautiful blue eyed blonde off, so she could marry one of our crew, he just shook his head. He looked at the engineer and they both smiled. It was a time in our nation's history when people did almost anything for our soldiers.

They woke my sleeping future bride, who along with her cousin chaperone, quickly dressed and were escorted from the train. My crew and I stood smiling on the tracks to greet her. We took them to a hotel in the town of Lancaster, and we returned to the base. The following evening we were given a three day weekend pass. We chartered a limousine and the bride to be and my crew went to Los Angeles, where we were married. My gunner, Sgt. Herman Franke, was our best man. That was July 27, 1945 -- my scariest fight was over, my war was won.

After our time in Los Angeles, we went up to the San Francisco area to Mother Field and picked up a brand new B-29 and returned to Guam. We flew a few more missions. Now that I was married, they scared the socks off of me. Finally, the end of the war came and we flew over the Battleship Missouri as the peace treaty was signed.

I returned, with my wife, to Alaska after the war and went to work as an airline pilot. I flew just over 35 years as an airline captain and am now retired. We have three grown children and will be celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary this coming July.

Becoming a pilot in the US Air Force, and being assigned to the 19th Bomb Group, was a dream fulfilled. Our 35 years with the airlines was good to us, and I have to thank the Air Force for the wonderful training that made the airline job possible. Our 19th Bomb Group was made up of the best guys on earth, thanks to all.