Now I've mentioned our coast watchers in the South Pacific--well, the Japanese had coast watchers, too. So they sent a message: any pilots that are checked out in small aircraft, we would like to have you fly some search missions for the Japanese coast watchers.
I learned to fly in a single engine Piper Cub, so I volunteered.
I get in that Piper Cub that they have--this was in Espiritu Santo--I take off, and I'm flying at about 500 feet above the jungle and the cocoanut trees that came right down to the water's edge. I'm flying along the edge of the water, looking for an antenna sticking up. And if I'd seen one, of course I'd have immediately called in and said where I was and what I saw, and they'd have sent out some aircraft or some marines to that area to locate those Japanese.
But I saw nothing--except the beauty of the islands.
The fuel tank on the Piper Cub has a little float with a piece of cork on the bottom and a wire sticking up that shows you how much fuel you've got left.
Well, I was so concentrating on what I was doing, that I didn't realize I was running out of fuel. So here I am, I look up and here's that fuel tank, it's past the half-way mark, so, man, I did a 180 degree turn and flew back to Espiritu Santo and called in and said I was landing with minimum fuel. Of course they knew that because they knew how much fuel I had and how much longer I was supposed to fly.
I landed, and I said to myself, Dan, this is stupid. So I didn't do it anymore. I just flew my combat missions in our B17s. But I did get to see the beauty of the islands at close range.
This is a story Dad told when I interviewed him at the Grand Central StoryCorp booth,
May 5, 2004.
--Kathryn Paulsen
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