Iwo was a beehive of activity when we arrived with all the returning P-51s and 12 of the B29s requesting permission to land. Dick Little radioed our bid and we waited our turn as directed, "Dreamboat," go around." Priority was given to the P-51s who barely had enough fuel to stay in the air. After circling for about an hour, Dick finally received clearance to land and we did so on three engines. Lt. Elmo Huston, flight engineer, went immediately to work on the damaged engine. He discovered that the flak hit had just missed the fuel line and cracked the pusher rod cover on one of the cylinders. That had caused us to lose oil. Elmo applied tape to the cracked part, pumped in 50 gallons of oil, and prepared to head for Guam and our eventual flight to Muroc.

All of us, that day, gained new appreciation for the sacrifices made by our Marines in taking Iwo. I doubt that we will ever forget. In his book, "Maximum Effort," by Bob Laird of the 39th, he describes Iwo Jima as an "Island of Cemeteries."

We were further impressed with the courage of the P-51 pilots stationed there. While Elmo was working on the damaged engine, an air raid warning sounded. P-51 pilots scrambled to defend the island. One P-51 crashed on takeoff. The pilot quickly abandoned the wrecked fighter and as the wreckage was being bulldozed off the runway, bearded a healthy plane to join the flight. Some courage.

In retrospect, I gather we left Iwo without refueling because of the air raid warning. It was a good move to avoid being caught on the ground, but we had a long way to go and the delay of an hour in landing had used up a large share of our fuel reserves. It would be close. The flight engineer monitored gas consumption continuously. About 200 miles north of Guam, Elmo notified the Captain that we were so Short on fuel that he did not think we could make it. Juvenal told Elmo that it was his call to make. The flight engineer, being anxious as the rest of us to return to Guam, made the only decision he could - We headed for Tinian. It was touch and go at that point to complicate matters; we approached the wrong runway at Tinian - the 4000-foot fighter strip. We were, fortunately, warned off with flares. Without sufficient gas to go around again, Juvenal, without altering our glide path, slipped P-7 to the adjoining B-29 runway - a maneuver one might expect of a fighter plane but hardly a disabled Superfort. We landed safely and before we could complete our taxi off the runway, one of the engines quit. A dipstick check of the tanks indicated little more than fumes in # 3. Call that a close one!

Once on the ground, we were driven to the mess hall in the rear of a truck, Elmo, exhausted from the mission and repairing the engine at Iwo, plus the anxiety of sweating out the fuel, fell asleep during the bumpy ride. We spent the night At Tinian. It was memorable because we had fresh eggs for the first time in months. Some claimed that Dale Barton consumed 11 eggs. We departed for Guam the afternoon of the 11th and arrived there safely. Within hours we were on our way to the USA.

Continued