doing a brisk business due to the bitter wind. We kept hailing and walking until the moisture on our eyelashes became crystals. We stopped in the lobby of the Tremont Hotel to warm ourselves and heard wonderful swing music coming from the upper floor. We were told the music was from the Holy Cross, Boston College victory dance in the ballroom above. Fred decided that dancing at the Tremont was better than fighting bitter winds and picky cab drivers, so we began dancing. It was a wonderful beginning of a serious romance. We were warm and warmly enthralled with each other. The music stopped suddenly in the middle of a slow, romantic dance. The master of ceremonies picked up the microphone and said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, we have a tragic announcement to make: the Coconut Grove Ballroom was consumed in fire tonight; hundreds of people are dead. All city hospitals are accepting dead and injured for identification and treatment.' Fred and I stared at each other in disbelief! Except for the bitter cold and rude cab drivers, we would have been part of that conflagration. I shivered and we hugged each other. We left to check on needs at the hospital. That unforgettable weekend convinced me that, besides being lovable and smart, my navy ensign was to me a herald of good luck and safety. So I married him! Submitted by Clara Foulger, wife Ben E. Fowler I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in October 1941. My training consisted of several months at the Oakland, California airport. After elimination training to see if I could fly, I was transferred to Corpus Christi, Texas, where I completed flight training and then was assigned to a squadron to be flying off the USS Independence. After months of training as a dive bombing pilot, we were assigned to the South Pacific for combat in the Guadalcanal Campaign. We were stationed at New Georgia Island Air Field. It was my assignment to drop a bomb on an antiaircraft gun emplacement at a Japanese airstrip on the Island of Bougainville. When I started in my dive, I quickly found my target. I dove right on it, as I went down I used my machine guns shooting at them. At the proper altitude, I dropped my bomb. Antiaircraft fire was always more than we wanted. But as I was diving, I could see the tracer bullets coming right at me, right over me, and right around me. I knew I was in trouble, but I was on them. I was sure as I dropped my bomb, I destroyed their guns. As I came up out of my dive, I knew I had been hit. My windshield was quickly covered with oil. The oil just poured out of my engine, but the engine just kept running. It was truly amazing. I was surely blessed. I expected the engine to stop at any time, but I put my propeller to the lowest pitch which would make it slow as possible. My wingman joined me and flew with me knowing I was in trouble as we flew back toward home base. The squadron was gradually leaving me as I couldn't fly as fast but my wingman stayed with me. As I got about half way back, I knew there was a fighter strip on a small island. I knew if I could make it there, all would be OK. I didn't want to go down in the water. The engine kept running, even though it was over heating because of lack of oil. Anyway, I made it to the airstrip. But to my dismay as I approached for a landing, the control tower gave me the red light and persisted that I was not to land. I had no radio contact with them so all I could do was disregard their signal. I could see people running everywhere and a smashed up plane and parts scattered. But I knew I had to land, I didn't dare take a wave-off. Because I was an experienced carrier landing pilot, I could land in a short distance. After landing, I discovered what the problem was there. An ordnance man tried to disarm a bomb that hung up on this torpedo bomber plane, which he was told not to do. It exploded, killing over 20 men who had come to investigate why this plane had landed. What a tragedy. I was flown back to the base later that day as my engine was completely destroyed. Several months later the Marines secured sufficient area on the Island of Bougainville and then the Seabees built an airstrip on which we were now based, so we could fly farther up the channel to bomb the Japanese bases on Rabaul and other islands. Rabaul was a major Japanese 158 holding which we bombed many times and fighter planes were shooting at us each time we bombed them. For one week, one of our pilots was to be assigned to the Marine Corps on the base that was protecting our airstrip to help spot Japanese troops coming in to destroy our airstrip. Nearly every night, they would walk down the beaches from both directions when the tide was low in order to get in position to shoot their bazookas and guns at us. They would even try to shoot their rifles at us as we took off and landed. They surrounded our perimeter. The Marines job was to destroy them to keep them from taking over our airstrip. For one week, they asked me to go up with an observer officer to check on the movements of the Japanese coming near our perimeter. Each morning we would get up before daylight and we would try to take off right at daylight. We would fly along the beaches in both directions from our perimeter to see if we could see tracks of troop movements because the jungle was so thick they would have to walk along beaches to get from one location to another. So in the night time, they would move nearer our perimeter to lob shells or begin a firefight with the Marines who were protecting us. Each morning, we got up to see what movements we could see in the tracks along the beach. Of course, the tide would come in and then it would cover the tracks up. One morning, it looked like there had been as many as two hundred who came up to our perimeter and into the jungle around. The officer with me called the Marines and gave them their location. The Marines used their artillery and mortars and dropped their shells into that area. We found out later they had killed many of them. After one week was over, this officer requested I stay with them because he liked working with me; and we were able to disrupt their assignments to kill us and remove the airstrip. After we checked the beaches each morning, I would fly around and I would check to find bridges, their bivouac areas back in the jungle hills. I would fly at a certain angle, almost angle with a hilltop. I could look back in the trees and could see their bivouac areas. I carried a bomb each trip and machine guns, and I would bomb and strafe them. I also bombed several bridges to secure our airstrip. This Marine officer thought it was great, and he hadn't been able to accomplish this work. We did this work for an extra two weeks, and they named two bridges I knocked, after me. I was excited. They shot at us with their rifles when we took off and landed. We sustained bullet holes in our planes. After flying 48 or 49 strikes against the enemy, besides these flights with the Marine captain in this Solomon Islands Campaign, we came home on leave where I was assigned to train as a fighter pilot and joined Fighter Squadron One and again sent back to the Pacific assigned to USS Bennington, another aircraft carrier. We were aboard the Bennington in the Philippine Islands with our Task Force. Our target was going to be Japan, hitting all the different airfields. We did bombing and strafing and rockets. We were destroying their airfields and their planes. One of our most dangerous missions was to bomb the main Japanese Naval Base in the Sea of Japan called Cure. Antiaircraft fire was almost unbelievable. They had battle ships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and a submarine nest. The Japanese had run out of fuel, supplies and the means to keep their Navy operating and had pulled all of them into port. Our assignment was to destroy the Navy. We did just that. I dropped my bomb on a nest of submarines. We lost several pilots and planes from our Squadron and there were other losses too. After bombing their electric plants, dams, industrial plants, iron works and airfields and other military and industrial places for 74 days, the Army Air Force dropped the atom bomb. The days of war were over. At the signing of the unconditional Surrender aboard the USS Missouri, they requested the Naval Task Forces in which there were five forces, three aircraft carriers in each Force, to organize a great formation flyover. This was one of the most dangerous parts of the war. One thousand two hundred planes in one flight, all Navy, flying in formation, flying over and circling around. A great show of force-we lost several planes and pilots. We were all opposed to it, to have such formation in one flight. It was very difficult to stay in formation with such a mass of planes, like "crack the whip", first you are flying at full throttle, and then you have your flaps and wheels down trying to stay in formation without stalling out. This was repeated while the ceremony of signing the Surrender is being held on the ship Missouri just below us. At a special ceremony in San Diego, California, Naval Air Station, I was awarded the following medals: two Distinguished Flying Crosses and seven Air Medals and several campaign ribbons for serving in different areas in the Pacific. I loved flying off the carrier, even night landings. I didn't like being shot at. Several special memories: I was the experimental pilot to test out the catapult (which shoots the plane off the carrier) on the USS Independence. Another time: the hut I shared with three other pilots on Bougainville Island, was bombed and four men were killed by the Japanese the night after we were transferred. In training, I was impressed to make a quick right hand turn and another plane almost hit me. Only because I made the turn taking off, did I avoid the fatal collision. I felt protected many times. 159