We were now flying two and three hours a day and a
little at night. Landing a plane at night is a lot different than in
the daytime. Altogether I flew about 155 hours in the P-39 and
another 10 hours in the basic trainer while I was in California.
On September 22, 1943 I was granted a leave and prepared to go home.
This was the second and last leave that I had during my three and a
half years in the service. Four of my friends who lived in the East
bought an old car for $75 and they drove it non-stop all the way to
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They sold it for junk and took the train
back to California. There wasn't room enough for me to go-with them
so another fellow and I took a bus to Sacramento, where there was a
bomber base, and tried to hitch a ride east on an Army plane. There
was a B-24 Bomber flying to Omaha, Nebraska and we could ride it if
we had parachutes. We tried everywhere to borrow a parachute and at
the last minute I talked a captain into letting me take his (after a
couple of hours of pleading with him). I agreed to return it
immediately upon returning to California. We got on the plane and had
to stay in the bomb bay section. The door on the side of the plane
was about six feet by six feet and was open as the doors were
missing. After we took off the cold air was terrible as it was night
and the opening was right by us. We found a l2xl2 canvas and tried to
fasten it over the opening and it blew right out over the city of
Sacramento so somebody got a good canvas.
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