missed the plane/ part 5

missed the plane/ part 5

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


To: private first class Richard Nelson
VHF radio operator
crew Enola Gay

from
former Corporal
Ed Pritchard
Guam
June 1959


Rick:

It was so nice to hear from you after all these years.

It troubles me to remember those days in the War at Guam. In some ways it seems like it all happened to someone else. I am often troubled by what we did.

Still I wish to cooperate with the book project on the Enola Gay mission. Although I would prefer to not mention my work with my friend Lieutenant Osborne I will offer a few memories of our days together of a non confidential nature. I realize that the work has become declassified still I do not wish to breach the promises I made to Lt. Osborne to maintain absolute confidentiality about what we did. On that note I mention my last contact from military intelligence on this matter was in 1954.


Two incidents from my days at Guam come to mind.

The first while not directly related to the Enola Gay mission preparation might demonstrate to a reader what it was like to fight the Japanese there at Guam. I will  write about night guard duty at the base which was mandatory for all enlisted personnel, even myself a company clerk. The Japanese soldier we pursued at night was a fanatical soldier willing to sacrifice his life to further their Countries cause. Walking through the jungles at night was a terrifying ordeal for me.


Incident One

note as recounted by Corporal Pritchard's son, writer of this blog
Myers Evans=Edward Pritchard sr

Five Stories in One

The five senses

Taste
August 25, 1944

fiction
edward w pritchard

Corporal Myers Evans was walking night guard duty in the jungle of Guam at 2AM in World War two. He detested this assignment.

The jungle was alive with small insects that bit at his face and nested in his ears. The soggy ground was clutching at the soles of his boots. The low vegetation tripped at his ankles and shins. Sharp briers stuck into to his arms and back. Hanging tree snakes struck at his exposed neck. His heavy rifle was tugging at his aching muscles as he struggled to keep it pointed away from the Australian soldier walking in front of him. Invisible Japanese loyalists hid in wait or marched silently in the dark night.

To escape Myers began to taste Karla's skin back in Ohio. She was part Egyptian through her Grandfather and in very private moments he told her she tasted like saffron. As he walked he savored her flavor ten million or more miles away and did so until guard ended at 5AM.

end incident one

Incident 2

My flight to Guam in world war 2 was unusual in every way. First off there were only the pilot myself and one Lieutenant on the plane. Not wishing to attract attention by the Japanese we were unescorted and basically unarmed. Also we flew on a flight provided by the Canadian air force.

What a flight. Speed being essential we flew low through several storm fronts. Several times we dropped vertically two to three hundred feet. A year later, after that flight I was playing piano at a small NCO club in Guam at the end of the war and the pilot who had flown me in originally came by to talk. The pilot said his orders were to get Osborne to Guam and the sensitive equipment we carried to Guam safely without consideration to the comfort of the men on board. The pilot said it was the only time in four years of military missions that he was even airsick himself. He remembered me as a unique shade of green, he said.