this call came in, says blackjack tower, 696, blackjack tower, this is 696. and nobody answered. and that was repeated about three times. then this voice said, blackjack tower, where the hell are you. i jumped out of the ambulance and ran up -- it was a little bamboo tower. ran up there and the radio was sitting there, but nobody was there. so i grabbed the thing and said, 696 this is blackjack tower, come back. he said, what the hell is going on here. i said i'm sorry, sir, i'm not the tower operator, but i can help you get in. he said, can you turn the lights on. there was a switch. i said, yeah. so he's -- can you tell me how to get in. i had been there long enough, there were only two directions i knew of. traffic to the west or landing

to the west or something like that. the other was traffic to the right landing to the east. so i said traffic to the left, landing to the west and give me a call when you're downwind way and he said, and you stay right there until i get there. he came roaring up the ladder and he said, who the hell are you. and i said pfc more ray sir. >> i'd have said smith. >> he said, you're not a tower operator. and i said no, sir. he said you are now. stay here until somebody comes to relieve you. and about, i don't know, it was when we had our annual reunion in illinois, i ran into bill again. and i walked up, he looked at me and said, who are you. i said you remember the night when you came up to the tower and chewed out this guy. and he said yeah. i same, i'm him.

>> i'm the chewee. >> he said, can you still use a radio. i said yeah. that was the last time that i saw bill. he made his last flight shortly after that. but he was a character. >> none of the rest of you were, though. >> no. all nice young men. >> absolutely. bill, you got any stories? >> i'd like to tell a story about john allison. i really got to know him in the reunions. i was a staff sergeant and he was a colonel, retired general and i really knew him. he's the greatest hero i know of personally from world war ii. i have his picture in my living room at home. i'm only 5'7". he's about this much shorter than me. he was a tough guy. he was a fighter pilot, profession when he got over there. he went up twice in a glider.

training was a long time for glider pilots. he was only taken up twice. of course, always a dead stick landing in the glider, you don't have a fan up front. then he went in, dennis explained, at night, behind enemy lines in a field full of stumps and logs, his third glider landing was under these conditions. that's a pretty tough guy. i really admire him. >> okay. >> dick -- [ applause ] >> what do you remember most about this operation in burma? >> the night that we were supposed to -- march the 6th.

it was the -- what took place when they found out that broadway had been covered with logs. and they thought that the japs had gotten wise to what was going on. and they were debating whether to change over from broadway to the other place. and they finally decided that there wouldn't be a crowd of japanese at broadway and went on and decided to go on into broadway. cochran and allison were

debating whether to, wouldn't be a trap, not going into broadway and everything would go elsewhere and there would be a trap there by the japanese. >> well, i wonder if anybody in this audience has got any questions for these guys. i hope you do. we've got a couple of microphones right here at the end of the aisles. don't be shy. all right? get up here and ask some questions. of any of them. here's one. >> you talked about broadway, was that a clearing, a runway that had been there before? >> no, broadway was just a clearing in the jungle. it was code named broadway. they landed all the gliders there. found out it was pretty rough. one of those gliders had a miniature bulldozer and they were able to build a -- a rough

trip enough to land c-47s on the following night. >> a clearing, so that looked like the best spot to try to land. but the japanese were aware of that and that's why they put the logs down or that was just accidental? >> no, it actually turned out that it was just foresters were cutting trees and dragging them out into the clearing for them to dry. at first, we thought that they had dumped them and put the logs out there, but it wasn't. it was the forester. >> how much runway -- what length do you need for your l-5 and then how much do you need for the c-47? >> about 300 feet for the l-5. >> dick how much rub way do you need for a c-47 towing a glider? >> how much runway to get a c-47

out of broadway? how long of a runway to get a c-47 off? >> it ended up being about 4,500. >> 4,500. >> it was built in one night. >> let's go to this side over here, mr. ymca football. >> my neighbor helped build to burma and he just passed last year. and he came back and he said he was never going to eat another grain of rice in his life. so i wanted to hear from you fellas what it was like just on a day by day basis out there surviving. >> i don't know what he said. >> he was talking about people didn't want to eat rice anymore after being over there. i had some friends that were guests of the japanese for a few months and they wouldn't touch rice either.

as far as the mess hall, we didn't have a lot of rice there. we didn't have very good food. it was not too tasty. >> i came bam from other there and was working in chicago and the office manager where i worked was a japanese girl and wound up marrying her and eating rice the rest of my life. [ applause ] >> let's go back over here. >> my question concerned which pilot flew the hump first, was it the air commandos or the pilots of the 14th air force? >> i think it was the 14th air force. >> pilots of which organization flew the hump first.

>> i'm still not reading you. >> which flew the hump first? do you know? what outfit through over the hump first? >> there was flight of airplanes. jake sarks who was my roommate who arrived in india around the first of april and he was in another young man, paul conroy flew a couple of missions before. jacob was the last airplane out of there. i think most of you heard that

they loaded 71 passengers on there. when they arrived in india, there were 72. >> it wasn't magic. it was a baby. >> the first hump flight incidentally was flown by robert oolde in early april of 1942. do you know what they carried? >> they carried fuel to china for the doolittle. >> was he with the 14th or not? >> do you know? we'll get back with you. >> can i ask another question. what was the casualty rate of the pilots that flew the hump? >> i'm sorry. i don't know. i know it was very high. >> okay. thank you. >> i do think that i saw a figure of about 600 aircraft and

crews went down over the hump. at one point it was more dangerous to fly the hump than it was a round trip out of berlin to england. >> well they are flying c 47s in planes that won't go as high as the mountains with the world's worst weather with no good weather reporting stations. very few navigation aids and pretty heavily loaded. >> you mentioned an air base that you were stationed at. was it in de kah or chittygau. >> the air commandos were stationed at a place called laligot. they were in far eastern assahm. did you ever get supplied by air

drop from any of the other bases in india whether assahm or east india or whatever? >> in chittygao. it's hard to remember the names. we hit several different places. >> were you ever supplied by air drop rather than just gliders. >> we were on our way to the mission. we weren't on an air drop. the only air drops that we ever did was own berma. the air commandos themselves did most of the air drops. >> colonel cole, i was a commando pilot in vietnam in the

first commando squadron. the most memorable moment in my life was spending an hour with you over our favorite beverages in 2009 at the air commando reunion. one of the most significant things that i took from our conversation was how colonel doolittle determined when it was time to bail out and the procedures y'all went through and so forth. would you be kind enough to describe that moment in time about the bail out and what went on? >> can you describe when you bailed out of your mitchell bomber after the raid on tokyo in china when you were at 8,500 feet. can you describe that? >> well, first i can tell you it was in my opinion the scariest

time of the whole mission. you're 9,000 feet in the middle of a very active warm front and lots of lightning and rain and so forth. looking the down at the black hole in the bottom of the airplane wondering what you were going to do after you bail out, what you're going to hit because you couldn't see the ground. it was at night. when he said we're going to have to bail out, paul leonard, the crew chief was in the back all by himself, he went out first. he was followed by fred bremmer

the bombadeer and myself. >> i was wondering what it was like on base just day to day when you weren't out on missions? >> are you talking about for the air commandos there? >> yeah. >> okay. pat, do you want to take that. >> well i'd like to accept it might not come as a surprise to you people that all three of us have hearing aides plugged in our ears. unfortunately the day before i came up here the right one went on the fritz and i sent it in for repair. i don't know what the question was. >> my grandpa always does the same thing. i was wondering what it was like on base day to day when you weren't out on missions. >> what it was like on what. >> on base day to day when you weren't on missions. >> can you describe what it was like when you weren't flying

missions? >> yeah. it was a mad house. our air strip when you think of c 47s and b 25s and the pursuit ships and all the planes taking off from there. you kind of think we have a paved air strip and it wasn't. as as i understood it, it was three rice patties in a row. it was probably the most homogenous group that ever existed in the army as far as i know. there was no differentiation between officers and enlisted men. you all worked together. if something needed to be done everybody chipped in and did it. it was happening all the time. just constantly fixing airplanes. working on airplanes. fueling airplanes. it was one of the neatest times

of my life or neatest. >> we should point out that everybody ate together. one time the general saw these enlisted member and officers sitting together and nobody saluting and he said what in the world. it's all we got. if you prefer to eat outside we can set you up a table. he did. and they did. he ate outside. >> i think we got time for two more questions. one here and one here and then we will have to shut it off. all three. it's been super seeded. the three of you. let's go to you. >> question for dick cole and a lot of people may not know there are famous reunions every year since the war of the doolittle raiders who have a big famous reunion each year and a famous bottle of conyak that general

doolittle purchased at the end of the war and was supposed to be drunk by the very few remaining members of the raid. did you make it to the reunion this year and was the conyac opened and sipped. >> yes. it was finally opened but they were kind of chinsy with it. [ applause ] >> the bottle was going to stay with the gobblets at the air force museum. >> that conyac 1896, hso of

course they were stingy with it. >> how much resistance did you get from the japanese in burma? >> actually, i don't remember. we were able to operate for several times without any bother. >> i can truthfully say they shot at us. >> they were at broad way this clearing for about a week before the japanese finally discovered where they were and bombed them. they also sent in japanese land troops infantry and they surrounded it and so almost every night there would be a fire fight. they set up a strong hold at

broadway and just -- it's kind of hard to believe but they got used to the harassment and lived with it. they stayed there while they were surrounded by the japanese. >> yes, sir. last question. >> i want to direct this question to dick cole. i know we're covering a lot of time when you were on the raid with doolittle but what would be one of the most memorable moments that you remember in that raid, please. >> i haven't been asked that question before. the most memorable thing i can remember was when my parachute opened. [ applause ]

i was awful glad it did. >> thank you dick. [ applause ] screeria -- nigeria. -