PROJECT SEVEN ALPHA: AMERICAN AIRLINES IN BURMA 1942 PDF
Preview PROJECT SEVEN ALPHA: AMERICAN AIRLINES IN BURMA 1942
Project Seven Alpha Revised Proofs Lamorna Publishing Services September 2008 First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Pen & Sword Aviation an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd 47 Church Street Barnsley South Yorkshire S70 2AS Copyright © Leland Shanle, 2008 ISBN 978 18441 5826 3 The right of Leland Shanle to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset in Palatino Linotype by Lamorna Publishing Services Pen & Sword Books Ltd. incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Remember When Publications, Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper. Printed and bound in England by.Biddles Ltd. For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Contents 1. Project Seven Alpha 19 June 1984 2. War 7 December 1941 3. Flashback 24 September 1918 4. The White House 8 December 1941 5. The Fall of Empire 9 December 1941 6. Goodbyes 10 December 1941 7. C.-in-C. Pac. Fleet HQ 10 December 1941 8. The Journey Begins 10 December 1941 9. The Conquest of the Malayan Peninsula 10 December 1941 10. Feet Wet 10 December 1941 11. Pearl Harbor 11 December 1941 12. Wake 11/12 December 1941 13. Philippine Islands 12 December 1941 14. The Road to Calcutta 12 December 1941 15. Calcutta 12 December 1941 16. Shangri-La 12 December 1941 17. The White House 12 December 1941 18. The Hump 13 December 1941 19. China 13 December 1941 20. C.-in-C. Pac. Fleet HQ 17 December 1941 21. Zero 24 December 1941 22. Ding Hoa 5 January 1942 23. Invasion of Burma 21 January 1942 24. Shangri-La 24 January 1942 25. The Grind 16 February 1942 26. Shoot Down 17 February 1942 27. Rescue 18 February 1942 28. The Governor’s Ball 19 February 1942 29. The Grind, Part Two 9 March 1942 30. Ambush 25 March 1942 31. Homecoming 8 May 1942 Epilogue Acknowledgments Dedication To the Seven Alpha men of American Airlines This book is dedicated to all the men and women of aviation, past, present and future; the airline trail blazers of the twenties and thirties, my grandfather William among them; the aviators who flew through the war torn skies over the past 100 years, my uncles Bob, Bill and Larry among them; and the fallen aviators, my uncle Larry among them. To the aviators catapulting from carriers, circling for hours on a tanker track, hovering over a hostile mountain peak; or shooting a localizer approach to a mountain-encircled airport, after flying all night; and of course, to the men and women on the ground who keep them in the air. The past and present is meaningless without a future; to the next generation of aviators, my children among them. But mostly, this book is dedicated to my family, whom I literally dragged around the world in my pursuit of aviation: Leland, David, Kaitlyn, William – and especially Laura, the love of my life. Chapter 1 Project Seven Alpha 19 June 1984 The Hawaiian sun had begun to set over the Pacific, casting long shadows across Honolulu International Airport. An American Airlines captain sat in the cockpit of his DC-10 Luxury Liner and watched as the sun started its journey below the horizon. On any other day in his life, this would have been a non-event. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed, even reveled in the many passings of the sun he had witnessed. Sometimes he thought he could remember each one individually. He had always marveled how magical it was that a twice-daily event could hold such mystery, such diversity, as it unfolded so many times and in so many ways, right in front of him. He had seen most of his sunrises and sunsets from the cockpits of aircraft. He had watched many from the ground, but to him, to truly experience a rise or set of the sun, you had to be in the air. You had to be a part of it. This sunset, he mused, was not only an announcement to the world that the day was done; it was a very private message to him that the biggest part of his life – his professional life – was coming to an end. The best part of his life had been his family, but to say that flying had not been the most consuming part of his life would not be honest. When the sun rose again he would be sixty years old, the FAA’s mandatory retirement age. “Sixty!” thought the captain. “How can that be? My mind, my essence is unchanged – how can I be sixty?” He would watch the sun set, then rise, one more time as a professional line pilot, a wide body captain for American Airlines. He’d still have his old Stearman biplane, the plane he’d learned to fly at the age of seventeen; it would be fun to putt around in it, but it would never be the same. No, like the day he had retired from the reserves as a naval aviator, this chapter in his life would be complete tomorrow when he landed in Dallas.
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