Letters

摘要

While stationed in the Pacific, my father, Jack Payne, flew P-47s. But he so loved to fly, he'd fly any airplane that anyone would let him. So when a P-61 squadron ("Welcome to the Night Shift," Aug. 2016) on Ie Shima asked for volunteers to fly night patrols, Dad ran, not walked, to the offered Black Widow. On the flight, the crew was cruising along in the moonless Pacific night when the navigator/gunner started kicking Dad in the back. Dad, who had been woolgathering in the peaceful darkness, finally realized the plane had fallen off into a graveyard spiral. He pulled out, and based on how fast the altimeter was unwinding, he pulled out hard. Sunrise on Ie Shima revealed that the pullout had set up a vibration in the tail booms so strong it peeled the paint off. No one ever asked Dad to fly a P-61 again.