<Begin Segment 17>

TI: No, but now that you went off, you went on that landing, you landed...

BB: We landed in Okinawa and they had a, there was an airfield and they had a shack built on the airfield, which was a couple tents. And while we were there, we were assigned, I was assigned a two-engine bomber, what was the name of that bomber? At any rate, they were using bombers, B-29s and two-engine bombers to take us to the Philippines, and we were going to Manila. So I ended up on this, being assigned to this bomber. Any rate, in the meantime, we saw that there was a Red Cross doughnut wagon on one end of the field. So a bunch of us, here we are, the remnants of the C Company have gathered together, about half a dozen of us, we decided to visit the doughnut dolly and have doughnuts and coffee, a special treat. So we went over there and I'm, I'm standing there and chewing on a doughnut, having coffee, when they called my name. And, of course, I'm a mile away from this, from where you get onto the plane, field, so my plane takes off without me and my unit's a bomber. They, what they did on the bombers, they put a four-by-eight, two sheets of plywood across the bomb bay lengthwise, so they had two sheets, eight-foot this way and four feet wide, and there were two sheets on each bomb bay. So they allowed any POWs to ride anyplace they wanted. So they would ride in the bombardier's compartment, the engineer compartment, anything. When this thing was in the air, this guy who was riding in the bomb compartment pulled the bomb lever. Eleven guys fell to their death, and we watched 'em fall. I think it was about three miles in the air, just probably about a thousand feet up, had eleven guys fell to their death.

TI: Boy, they, they go all the way through a war, and then something like this happens.

BB: Uh-huh. So any rate, why, I ended up waiting for the next plane, which was C-46, and I rode in the, right next to the pilot. Co-pilot's seat, I sat in it all the way.

TI: So the prisoners of war were given special status?

BB: We were, we were treated really well. Our plane caught fire, one engine, so the pilot said, "Don't worry, we'll give it CO2," so they did, and he would go up, I don't know, as high as this thing would go, and they'd shut the engine, by that time, the engine was on fire again. They would give it the CO2 and glide. That's, we glided four or five times that way. We got to the highest point in the Philippines, which is Aparri where there was a small airfield, this thing landed, a bulldozer came and pushed it off to the side, they let it burn, we were all of us get off the darn thing, and about a few hours later, they flew on a C-47. We flew on a C-47 same pilot and co-pilot and navigator with us, flew us over Manila, he couldn't land, so we ended up visiting all the POW camps, Cabanatuan, go down as far south as Palawan, come back, and finally...

TI: He was giving you an aerial tour of all the --

BB: He gave us an aerial tour of the whole thing. So we finally, about three or four hours later, landed in Manila, and once we landed, we were in another, we were 29th Replacement Depot, which was a fenced-up area with high fences, just like a prison. And one side was, the Japanese on one side, you could see 'em through the fence, and we were given orders, "When you walk past, you don't say anything, you don't touch anybody, you don't even look. Anybody that breaks the rule, you'll end up in jail. We'll put you in prison." So Lang and I went, we were together again, so Sid and I, we stole a jeep. Right outside of the 29th Replacement Center they had barracks, and they had WACs at that time. And they had a WAC, the WAC first sergeant had her own jeep. We went over and decided, "Well, it's got a full tank of gas, let's borrow it and go visit, we'll go back to Batangas and see what's going on." So here's the tire changing iron, the jack and everything, we got that tire changing iron, put it on the lock and pull it, broke the lock, and took off. [Laughs] We actually stole a jeep.

TI: So was your sense that as a, like, again, POW status, that you were kind of golden? That no matter what you did, you were going to be okay?

BB: Well, we knew that they'd have a tough time finding us. So anyway, we went down to Batangas, and met the mayor and had lunch or something with him, a meal. They thought it was great, we got back in the jeep, took it back, and parked it where we found it.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.