I flew with Zed Smith in the new four-place Fairchild to Drysdale mission to see how the work on Shady Lady was coming along. They had trouble getting it started, using an extra battery, which we took along with us, and the radio didn't work. We were over the gulf when I noticed that the left fuel gauge was reading empty. Zed switched to the other tank, which soon ready empty also. We kept looking for a good place to land, but had no trouble getting to the mission with half a tank of fuel.

The mystery was solved when we found that the plane was specially ordered with a 24 volt system, but at the end of the production line a 12 volt battery was installed.

When Zed and Willard Marshall flew the plane out, I was stationed by a bunch of rocks at the end of the sand with all sorts of supplies such as plasma, splints, etc. Zed told me that when the plane started to roll, he felt the wheels digging in, so he looked out the window and pushed the manifold pressure up to the pin. The plane took off like a scared rabbit!

B24s had been having mysterious crashes during training. The wrecked planes were found with the tail sections a mile or so away. Lt. Wylie fell into a spin at night, opened the bomb bay doors to allow exit of the crew. Sgt Ralph King was on the flight deck but couldn't lift the hatch door. (I weighed the door and found it weighted 4 pounds.) Centrifugal force was so great that he couldn't lift it to safe his life. Suddenly, he said, he was able to lift it and was able to get out. Presumably this was when the tail came off. Shortly after the chute opened, the plane crashed. He was the only survivor. After this, the tail section of B24s was strengthened to 13 G's.

Flight surgeons were trained to give a prescription to each crew member returning from a mission of the only tranquilizer we had: two ounces of 100 proof bonded bourbon. They were each supposed to go to the dispensary and get the prescription filled. I am sure that my system was better: to hand the crew 20 ounces when they pulled into the revetment!