Getting Shot Down (Part 1 of 4)

We got badly wiped. We lost ten guys one day, out of twelve and we lost nine the next day. And the replacements were the guys that were flying the next day and the day after that, or two days after that, we took off again. The squadron was practically all replacements. There was, there was Jeep, myself and Ian, I think we were the only survivors. And, and Huey, and Huey was, Huey’s on leave. So, that’s why the new boys were, were flying and why they were flying so soon cause we were, we were short of aircraft and short of people and everything else.We lost these numbers, this number of people in a hell of a hurry and to be replaced with guys who had, they had more time than we did when we started on the Spits but they didn’t have any more time we had by the time they arrived. So, they were, they were duck soup and they, they didn’t have any, didn’t have time to practice flying with them, stuff like that. They’d had practice in at the OTU but that’s not the same as when your in Ops. And so, that’s how come I had a freshman right behind me. And, and I, it was, it was probably as much my fault as anybody’s, because I was nursemaiding him and I should have been more aware of what was going on and that, and there’s the point about a guy who’s afraid. He’s nursing himself, see he’s not paying attention, you know, and I was nursemaiding him. I was worried sick because I thought, and we, and a bunch of em got shot down too.