We took all of the clothes
we had with us and put them on, laid down in the bomb bay and nearly
froze to death on the way to Omaha. If the bomb bay doors had opened
it would have been the end of us as we were using the parachutes as
pillows! When we got to Omaha, I left the other guys and took a train
to Rochester. Somewhere in the past I had met an old sergeant who had
given me some good advice about train travel. He said to buy a coach
ticket and get on a first class car. By the time they came around to
collect tickets the coach cars were so crowded they couldn't make you
move. This always worked for me and I saved a lot of money.
Besides my luggage I had to carry that heavy bulky parachute all the
way across the country and all the way back.( When I got back to base
I put it on a P-39 and flew it back to the captain in Sacramento.) I
arrived in Rochester in the middle of the night and took a taxi to
Pittsford where I stood on the corner to thumb a ride. About 1:30 in
the morning an old black man and woman in an old Model A Ford gave me
a ride. They were so old I think they were scared of me but they
were surely nice to give me a ride at that time of night and we had a
good visit along the way. They let me out in Canandaigua and I walked
home. I made it faster than a train ride even though I used a lot of
different means of travel to get home that leave.
After my stay at home I took the train from Rochester to San
Francisco and it was a trip that I'll never forgot.
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