The Drunken Tail Gunner

We had problems with our one air gunner. He liked his booze. And a couple of times, when we were at Rabat Sale in Africa, I think, we were on the 3rd floor in this barracks, just briefly. And he went and got some native liquor somewhere, and he got pretty loaded. And he came in his room, pitch dark, and he bashed his shin on a, some little table, coffee table or something. And he was so mad. He was a pretty strong fella. He threw everything out through the window. All the furniture went out that window. So, we didn’t know that, and so we were ready for takeoff at Rabat Sale. And all of a sudden, this jeep tears down the runway and, “Cut engines!” So we did and - I wonder if I should mention his name - anyway, his name was, his first name was Paul. “Is Paul so-and-so in your crew? ” I said “Yes.” “He created damages in his room.” Anyway, it cost us $67 Canadian to pay for the damage he had done. That was pretty cheap, but we had to kick in $67 to pay for all that. So that’s a few things that happened. And that same guy, and this was at Korla, in India, and the British were very strict about discipline. We weren’t, you know, saluting officers and all that. But Paul was a sergeant, a flight sergeant, and he goes by this English major and he just ignores him. And the British major said, called him back, “Hey, Sergeant, you know what rank I am? ” And he says, “No, and I couldn’t care less!” All of a sudden, he calls for the MPs, military police. He wanted to have him arrested. So I talked to the major, and convinced him that he was part of our crew and that, if we lost him, we’d be short one person, and you can’t replace him. You can’t replace an air crew, like, off the street. So I saved him from getting ,,, ended up in the hoosegow.