When we did use our radio we had a code for each mission and the fourflights of each squadron were: black, black, green, etc. We used thesecodes when talking to each other so we knew who we were talking towithout using any given names. We looked forward to short missions toFrance or Belgium and these were called "milk runs". The longmissions with flak and enemy fighters were the ones we dreaded. Ishould mention that we had a certain amount of fear on thesemissions. It has been exclaimed that anyone who doesn't experience fear incombat is lying. It affected some more than others, however, and wewere constantly being observed by our doctor for any signs of battlefatigue. The strain would begin to tell after you had flown a lot ofmissions.

When we began to lose friends, I guess one just developed an attitudethat it wasn't going to happen to you. If you were shot down therewas still a good chance of surviving if you bailed out safely. Theonly instruction we ever had about parachutes took about fiveminutes. "You put the chute on this way and this is what you pull",and that was about it. 0ne time I visited a building on the basewhere they were packing parachutes and I learned how they foldedthem, but I would never have had the nerve to do my own. When talkingto some of the bomber crews that were in prison camp with us, welearned-much about their experiences having to bail out. They did notwear their parachutes and had to put them on before Jumping. Theytold about some airmen who were wounded or unconscious and they wouldput parachutes on them and push them out. Even the unconscious onesturned up In prison camp so it seems a fact that oven the unconsciousmind reacts, telling the body what to do. They must have pulled theirown rip cords to open their chutes.