FROM INDIAN FORT TO FLYING FORT -And Far Beyond
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It appeared that no one in the countryside down below knew that a United States Army Air Corps bomber was cruising at rooftop-level over their territory because we weren’t challenged again for more than 30 minutes. During that time, the co-pilot transferred every single remaining drop of fuel in the right-wing tanks over to the left ones. They were now showing about 60% full which meant we had 900 gallons, or about three hours flying time, remaining. "Vague," I called to the navigator, "how many miles to the Channel and also how many to the coast of England?" "Just a minute, Pilot, I’m working on that info right now." Then in about five minutes, he called "We’re just a little under 200 miles, maybe 180, from the French coastal town of Calais which is less than 30 miles from the English town of Dover on the other side of the Channel. Do you think we can make it?" "We can make it, Lieutenant," I said quietly, "you’d better believe we can make it!" A few minutes later the United Press correspondent came into the cockpit and spoke to me: "This is the greatest show I’ve ever seen in my fifteen years of news reporting. I’ve taken some of the most graphic pictures of air combat from the back of the plane that one could ever imagine. Would it be all right if I go down into the nose and take some of the bombardier and navigator in action?" "Sure," I said, "go ahead." "What is your name, Lieutenant? I’m making a list of all your crew members so I can mention at least some of them in the dispatches I will be sending back to Washington, D.C. regarding what I saw on this trip." I gave him my name but before he stepped down into the passageway between the cockpit and the nose, he hesitated for a moment and asked me another question. "We’re going to make it home, aren’t we?" "Yes," I told him, "we’re going to make it home." The Correspondent was still in the nose when all hell broke loose. The country we were flying over was a little rolling and it wasn’t possible to see very far ahead of us because we were so low. And before we knew it, we were going directly over an Army cantonment of some sort. It took a few moments before ground gunners down below could open fire on us and just a few more moments before their bullets started hitting Old 66. "Shoot at anything on the ground that moves!" I shouted through my throat mike to the gunners. And hold on, I’m taking evasive action." Later, Milt Ehrenreich, the bombardier in the nose who was witnessing the show while firing non-stop from his right nose gun, told me, "You should have seen those Krauts on the ground scatter when all of our guns opened up on them. I think they were a lot more scared of us than we were of them." A few minutes later, we had passed over the German Army base without any apparent damage to the vital systems of Old 66. Numbers 1 and 2 were still delivering full power and no one in the crew had been hit. Yet I knew that our greatest battle lay directly ahead so I began speaking to the crew:
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About the Book
The story traces the life of John Charles (Johnny) Mouat who was born on November 7, 1921 in the middle of a raging blizzard. The birthplace was at Custer, Montana, in the shadow of old Fort Pease at the confluence of the Big Horn and Yellowstone Rivers and near the site on the Little Big Horn where General Custer and many of his troopers were massacred by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors only forty-five years previously. Johnny Mouat was a Depression Child who grew up amidst successive years of poverty, drought, dust storms and grasshopper plagues. Following graduation as valedictorian from high school, he worked two jobs to put himself through business college and ended up as a secretary to Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower who went on to become General in charge of the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944 and President of the United States in 1952. Mouat spent much of World War II piloting B-17 Flying Fortresses from a base in England to targets in Germany. He was badly- injured during a mission to bomb industrial plants in the Ruhr Valley and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery during a mission against ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt. He was also thanked personally by Princess Elizabeth who later became Queen of England. And upon his return to the United States, he was selected during a visit to the Hollywood Canteen for a date with actress Hedy Lamar who danced with him and planted an exotic kiss upon his lips. The author spent three years flying combat missions during the Korean War and was promoted twice from Captain to Lieutenant Colonel during this tour of duty. He was also invited to meet and dine with Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai Shek at their Republic of China Headquarters in Taipei, Formosa (Taiwan). Following ten years as a budget director in a top-level government agency in Washington, D. C. he retired from government and established a guest ranch in Montana's towering Beartooth Mountains on the border of Yellowstone Park. But he was burned out by the Park fires of 1988 and turned his talents to writing. This career was almost abruptly extinguished by a herd of wild razorbacks on an Ozark mountaintop in Arkansas. Read FROM INDIAN FORT TO FLYING FORT -And Far Beyond to find out what happened.
About the Author
John C. Mouat, author of From Indian Fort to Flying Fort- And Far Beyond, was born near Montana's Old Fort Custer. He piloted Flying Fortresses in World War II, flew combat in Korea, was Secretary to General Eisenhower and kisses Hedy Lamar.