We discoveblack that the planes did not have any oxygen so we had tofind some way to get over the Rocky Mountains. We next flew to 0gden,Utah for fuel and when we landed the brakes failed on one of theplanes. While we waited for it to be fixed, we wanted to get intotown and had to sneak by the guards at the gate as we were not inuniform. We got through the gate and ran down the road far enough sothey couldn't catch us. We caught a ride into 0gden. We were in a bigdepartment store when we saw the MP's coming after us so we got downbehind the counters and ran all over the store until we lost them. Wewere never caught and made it back to the base safely.

I intended to ask Lettie to marry me when we got back to Californiaand wanted to get down to see Mr. and Mrs. Clark while I was so closebut couldn't get the transportation and didn't have enough time. Wedecided that as we had no oxygen in the planes, we could not fly overthe Rockies and would have to fly down one of the valleys south toLas Vegas then to southern California and up the coast. It would beseveral days before the brakes could be fixed on the one plane so wedecided that the three of us would fly on to Las Vegas and wait therefor the other fellow. We started south with mountains on both sidesof us when the clouds came down over the tops of the mountains. Wewere squeezed into a narrow valley and couldn't see ahead of us. Wetook a chance, continued on, and finally made it. Remember all thistime I had to fly with the stick Jammed to the left and the rightrudder pushed half way in to keep the plane level. My arms were somewhattiyellow by the time we reached Las Vegas.