1941 to 1945
Places and Faces Photo Album - Page 9-2
Eugene J. Link
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1941 to 1945
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Memories of a Pilot WWII CBI Theater
- Eugene J. Link
By Millie Link
(Continued)
"eet says 'Coca-Cola' Sir"!
The Brazilian government sent a group of students to Blackland for flight training.
One of the favorite stories on base was about the Brazilian student who became lost on a solo flight. He radioed
for help and his instructor told him to fly low and look for road signs. At long last he triumphantly called in
to report "eet says 'Coca-Cola' Sir"!
B-24 Liberator
At the Fort Worth Air Force Base, the pilots made the gigantic step from flying a
small 2-engine 450 H.P. plane to one that weighed 45,000 pound powered by four 1,200
horsepower engines. The wingspan of 110 feet (20 foot longer than his Dad's dairy barn back home) impressed Gene.
The B-24 Liberator was produced in greater quantities and flown in more theaters of war than any other four engine
bomber in WWII. The plane was described as duck-bottomed, graceless and deadly. Years later, Gene had a chance
to go through a restored B-24 at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, AZ and marveled that he was once agile and slim
enough to easily crawl up into the plane and make his way to the cockpit.
From March to June in 1944 they endured hours of classroom work and 108 hours
flying time. Cross-country flights from coast to coast were made to practice navigation. In June the group boarded
a train at Fort Worth, destination Tonopah, NV. It took about 2 weeks by way of El Paso, Los Angeles, Fresno and
Reno. While enroute they heard about the D-day invasion of Europe.
Tonopah, NV
Tonopah air base was a bleak place, almost desert-like, located in a long and broad
valley about 5 miles out of town. With its' bombing and gunnery ranges the base sprawled across more than 3 million
acres. Some thought the base was jinxed as so many fatalities occurred there. Here Gene was assigned his crew and
the 10 men stayed together until the end of the war. His crew consisted of co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, engineer,
radio operator, belly turret, nose turret, top turret and tail turret gunners. He wrote his parents that he sure
had a young crew-3 of them were only 18 and he figured the average age of men on base was about 20. For a guy that
had just turned 22, he suddenly felt old. The crew and their B-24 were inseparable with bombing and gunnery practice
missions almost every day.
The group boarded a train in September of 1944 for San Francisco-destination
Hamilton Air Force Base. They were assigned a shiny, brand spanking new B-24 to take overseas. It took about a
week to test the plane and get all the equipment assembled for the plane and crew. They left with a full crew on
September 24 heading for Bangor Maine, which was the staging base for flights across the Atlantic. Ten days were
spent fine tuning the plane and waiting good weather for the Atlantic crossing. It gave them time to enjoy the
New England countryside in full color.
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