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The
Three Submarines (Submitted by Roy Wendell as written by Martin Andrews) After I got back from combat in WWII, I was assigned as a pilot to the Air Transport Command where my duty was to ferry planes from factories or from wherever they needed to be taken. Once I had to fly a B-26 from San Francisco Municipal Airport to Langley Field Virginia. The night before, when my co-pilot and I stopped at a local nightclub to see the show, three sailors approached me to ask about the chances of getting a ride to the east coast. They lived in cities there and were just beginning 30 day shore leaves after 6 months of submarine duty in the Pacific. "You’re in luck," I told them, "I’m flying a twin engine bomber tomorrow to Virgnina. If you’re at the Operations Office at San Francisco Airport tomorrow morning at eight o’clock, you’ve all got a ride." This pleased them so much that they asked a roving photographer to take a picture of the four of us. I thought no more about this until some 20 minutes later when there was a commotion in the nightclub. Two Navy shore patrolmen were about to arrest one of the three sailors, the one in the right of the picture, an Italian chap from Brooklyn. For the first and only time, I pulled rank and went over to talk to the shore patrolmen, "I’m sure you are doing your duty, " I told them, "but the man you are about to arrest is my cousin, and I’m flying him and his shipmates to Virginia tomorrow. If you will release him in my custody, I promise you that you will have no more problems with him." This was something of a reach, since I was tall and blond and he was short and dark, but the shore patrolmen let me have him. "However, " they told me, "if he causes any more trouble, he’s ours!" Then I got the three sailors outside and spoke to the two who were still reasonably sober. "I don’t blame you guys for tying one on. If I’d just spend six months in a submarine, I might be tempted to do the same thing. But, look at it this way. Tomorrow, you’ve got a ride clear across the country, to where your families and friends are eagerly looking forward to seeing you. Don’t blow it. Take your buddy back to your hotel and be at the airport tomorrow morning at eight o’clock." And they all were. A big hung-over, but ready to go.
Martin
(Andy) Andrews and the three submariners. © 2004 The Long Island Early Fliers Club, P.O. Box 221, Bethpage, NY 11714-0221 • info@longislandearlyfliers.org |
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