Oral History Interview with W. A. Henderson, 2007 Page: 7
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Mr. Johnson
Mr. Hendersontook that thing apart and found a little tap in one of the cylinders. Well,
got that fixed, we got as far as Karachi and we lost an engine again on this
aircraft. The aircraft engine supply in Karachi was very short, we waited
20 days until they shipped one from the states before we finally got an
engine for the aircraft. Then we landed over, we had two airfields for the
7th Bomb Group, 10th Air Force. They landed us over on the strip, it was
the 493r and the 9th, but we only spent one night there and of all things the
quarters we occupied was a crew that did not come back that day. That
was all the quarters we had available for us. Kind of a nice introduction to
have to spend the night on somebody who didn't come home's bed.
Nevertheless we took the aircraft on over to the other airfield, which was
known as Madagang, and we shared that strip with the 492nd. So we had
four squadrons over there, the 493" and 9th on one strip and the 436th and
492"d on the other.
The 436th was your squadron?
The 436th, the outlaw squadron, was my squadron. I later, whenever I got
recalled during Korea, was assigned to B52s and ? , I spent 10
years in the 492"d then with the 7th Bomb Group. So, I spent a lot of time
with them. We did not fly combat missions right away, but I was the first
one on the crew to fly a combat mission. They tried to put you with an old
crew to fly your first mission. And this I did. And, I had problems from
the very beginning, and I don't why, with release mechanisms and bombs
hanging up in the bomb bay. When it come time, and I was toggling on
the lead, and I toggled, no bombs. And so I reached over and hit the salvo
handle and we always had a way of doing things over there. We'd loop
the arming wires over the release handle on that Al 1 so that if you had to
salvo, and you never did this 'til after you got over and was at a good, safe
altitude. If you had to salvo, then, over the target, they would explode,
because the arming wires were pulled out. And, anyway, this I had done,7
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Johnson, Kep & Henderson, W. A. Oral History Interview with W. A. Henderson, 2007, text, 2007; Fredericksburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth193881/m1/7/: accessed May 31, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.