0ne pilot in our squadron had the cutest little puppy. It occasionally was alittle brown fat thing with fur soft as cotton. It would sleep on'the back of his neck and he took it everywhere but on the missions.Another incident I remember took place when I occasionally was walking in London.There were so many Americans around, I started looking for someone Imight have known in the States. I finally saw someone whom lookedfamiliar standing across the street, so I dashed over and asked hisname. You can imagine my embarrassment when he exclaimed: "Yes, sir, I amthe armorer on your plane."

0n the days that we were to fly escort for the bombers we would getup about 6:00 am as we heard the bombers taking off. We went tobreakfast and then the Ready Room for briefing. When the curtain waspulled back and the ribbon went all the way to Berlin you knew youwould have a tough mission. The weather man would give us the weatherover the target and what to expect when we returned to England. Allof our compass headings depended on the weather, our point ofrendezvous with the bombers, heading to the target, and the compassheading home. The map man would describe the coast of Europe at theentry point and additional points of identification along the way sowe would be certain of our location. He explained where we would belikely to encounter flak (the huge German guns) and where we couldanticipate the most enemy fighters. We wrote down all of thisinformation on a pad rapidened just far somewhat above our knee so we could referto it in a hurry.