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MAG-25 EmailTHE STORY OF SCAT
Part II
More on the South Pacific's combat airline
How it parachutes supplies to beleaguered Marine raiders,
evacuates wounded
and flies fresh vegetables from Australia,
all in the day's routine.
By CAPT. ROBERT JOSEPH ALLEN and LT. OTIS CARNEY
In the pre-SCAT days the pilots who flew the hastily and loosely organized outfit that later became SCAT were mostly hand-picked airline veterans with an average time in the air of more than 8,000 hrs.
Today SCAT is operated almost entirely by lads who had never been inside an airplane three years ago. They have an incredible sang frond, many not realizing how tough their daily grind is because they were raised from fledglings by SCAT. They never knew an easier schedule. These lads also have a sense of humor and the anecdotes told are many. one story occurred when Lt. Col. Van Liew was heading a flight of several SCAT transports between Bougainville and Treasury Island He observed a B-24 bomber obviously in distress. Within a few moments it made a crash landing on the water and sank so quickly its crew had no time to launch the rubber life boats. Van Liew brought his transport down to within 50 ft. of the water and ordered his crew to throw the rubber boat overboard to the men in the water. Then Van Liew glanced back to see what the other transports in his flight were doing. They were all coming down close to the water in a line as uniform as ducks making for a pond and each was dropping its rubber boat near the dunked bomber crew. Observing all this from the vantage point of his own plane Lt. Edmund K. "Catfish" Smith, one of the pilots remarked over the interplane radio: "Col. Van Liew, what are we trying to do, start a yacht regatta down there?"
All SCAT planes carry a pilot, co-pilot, a navigator, radio operator, mechanic and occasionally a flight nurse or a corpsman. SCAT does not require that these fly together as a permanent team. For instance, a pilot flying a designated run one day may fly an entirely different run the following day perhaps with an entirely different crew. The shifting about of schedules and crews familiarizes all pilots and crews with the entire route covered by the SCAT organization . . . a route that shifts and expands as new bases become available. There is usually plenty of good-humored rivalry to be first to set foot at a new base. In one case this led the member of a crew to yank open the door and jump out at the risk of his neck before the plane had come to a stop on a new field just completed by Seabees.
Island Dispensaries
At each island stopover there is a completely equipped medical dispensary. When a SCAT evacuation transport lands on any of these airports the doctors and assistants are equipped to handle any emergency case needing attention before arrival at destination.
On a bloody day at Bougainville, for example, SCAT evacuated 130 litter cases to Guadalcanal. In less than 4 hrs. these men, many of whom had lost limbs or whose eyes were damaged, were between clean sheets in a base hospital on the Canal. Not one case was lost in transit. Flight nurses or corpsmen take care of evacuees in flight. The Army nurses began flying the SCAT runs on February '8, 1943, when Lt. Mae Olson was on a SCAT crew which flew into Guadalcanal. Although this arrival was widely publicized at the time it was a routine flight. The nurses, many of whom were airline hostesses before joining the Army. took it all in their stride.
Reef Landing
An Army pilot, Capt. Harold Petty with 13 wounded aboard his plane, was decorated for the part he played when engine failure forced hint down over the ocean. He made a skillful landing on a reef, without injury to any aboard. Then he and the wounded lived for three days on the wings and top of the fuselage until rescue parties arrived. He and the corpsmen strapped the stretchers to the wings at low tide, then carried them up to the fuselage top when the tide came in. Eventually all were found and the wounded survived.
Not all the heroes of SCAT are crew members. Navy Lts. Andrieus A. Jones, John J. Sullivan (j.g.) and Richard M. Nixon, have more than once gone into places where battle smoke still drifted after the first waves of shock troops landed. They scouted the lay of the land so that they could later aid the Seabees in constructing landing strips. Several times the Marines have complained that their efforts to clean out lingering pockets of Jap resistance were interfered with by Seabees stringing telephone wires and putting in foundations for power plants. If there is one branch of service besides his own which the average Marine swears by, it is the Seabees.
Services Share SCAT
The Navy contributes its full share to SCAT's operation. The SCAT setup contemplated that each branch of the services--Army, Navy and Marine--would contribute one-third of the officer and enlisted personnel to share the burdens and responsibilities in the same proportion they would enjoy the benefits. This plan has been followed faithfully. The SCAT roster shows that a full third of all the ground officers and enlisted men in SCAT are from the Navy.
Navy men are in charge of most of the SCAT stations. In addition, Naval officers occupy posts as flight surgeons, passenger officers, navigation instructors, and in charge of operations, cargo, mail, communications and statistics. At every station, from Green Island in the north to Sydney in the south, Navy aviation mechanics, radiomen, aerologists, corpsmen, mail and cargo clerks, storekeepers and passenger clerks are to be found pulling their oars in the SCAT boat even though their jobs may not be as colorful as those of the Army and Marine pilot
SCAT Grows
Following its inception, SCAT moved steadily west-ward and northward as the invasion of the Solomons gathered momentum. When the Japs fled the Canal, SCAT pushed its northernmost terminal to the Russell Islands and flew in the first mail the men had received in three months.
During fighting in July, 1943, SCAT received word that a battalion of Marine raiders was trapped within a few miles of Bairoko Harbor on the extreme northern tip of the New Georgia Island. When they found their supplies reaching the vanishing point, SCAT was called in. At Henderson Field, crews worked feverishly all one night packing thousands of pounds of food, medical supplies and ammunition. Daybreak found the SCAT planes on their way to Bairoko Harbor. Nearing their objective the raiders were spotted through almost impenetrable jungle by prearranged signals. In a matter of minutes the Parapaks had found their mark.
A month later, on August 8 and 9, SCAT again went "bombing" with Parapaks dropped to ground forces cut off by the Japs above Munda Point. Crews were so anxious to go on the Parapak "bombing" missions, sometimes through almost solid curtains of ack-ack at one stage of the Munda battle, that they resorted to bribery among themselves for the distinction of going. At one point the Japs had one light and one heavy battery of anti-aircraft only about 50 yds. from the trail, over which the SCAT transports dropped their supplies to the raiders.
In July, the weather was so bad on one of these trips that the fighter escort was forced back. But the SCAT planes, knowing how desperately beleaguered the raiders were, continued on and made their drops of supplies as usual. Today, the Japs have been driven from the whole section.
From New Georgia SCAT pushed its route to Vella Lavella and Treasury Island. Then on December 10, 1943, more than 13 months after landing the first flying boxcar on Guadalcanal, SCAT completed spanning the Solomons. On that rainy morning, four transports, one piloted by Lt. Col. Sands, fought their way through bad weather into Torokina fighter strip. Bougainville.
Air Greengrocer
SCAT recently added another item to its long list of battle assists. Combat pilots in the Kahili, Bonis, Kara and Buka sections were flying an average of 9 hrs. daily with as many as six on oxygen. This and lack of fresh food brought staleness and combat efficiency was dropping alarmingly. SCAT sent planes to Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand, for the needed food and flew it back to the pilots messes. One day recently, 15,000 lbs. Of greens, fresh vegetables and eggs were flown to the fronts.
Some of SCATS feats in battle assists have been prodigious. On February 10, this year, the cornered Japs at Bougainville were desperately attempting to break out of the trap. At Espiritu Santos there was 50,000 lbs. of a certain ammunition needed badly at Bougainville. Literally combing the broad expanses of the Pacific by radio, SCAT had 25 transports at Espiritu Santos the next morning. By 3 p.m. every pound of the ammunition was at Bougainville .
Among SCAT pioneers thare are names that will always be recalled when the outfit's old-timers reminisce, such as Maj. Norman J. Anderson, USMC, Maj. Joseph R. Little, Jr., USMC, and Maj. (now Col.) Leonard W. Ashwell, USMC. Maj. Anderson, an airline pilot came out with the first contingent. He literally doubled in brass at first, doing everything from flying the line to checking out pilots. He is even said to have lent a hand at loading and unloading cargo. Maj. Little organized and built into a smooth functioning machine SCAT'S first communications. Maj. Ashwell set up the first service facilities for SCAT and in a large measure was responsible for keeping the transports going during those incredible first months. Most of the repair work had to be done in the open, with few tools and under climatic conditions that are among the world's worst for fine steels and highly polished surfaces.
Jap Prisoners
Probably as disturbing an experience as any encountered by a SCAT passenger pilot came the way of Marine Capt. George W. Kimball early this year. After hauling supplies to the Bougainville front he was given a load of 10 Jap prisoners captured the night before. A fierce battle was raging and Capt. Kimball hurried to take off not paying much attention to the disposition of the prisoners and guards. After getting off intact and climbing to 10,000 ft., he decided to turn the wheel over to the co-pilot, Capt. Max W. Dix, USMC, and make an inspection trip. To his consternation he discovered there were only three Marines armed with standard M-1 carbines guarding 10 sullen and fanatical looking Jap prisoners. The Marines seemed to be not at all disturbed, but their nonchalance disturbed Capt. Kimball even more. Finally he remarked to one of the guards: "You fellows don't seem to be taking this job of guarding these Japs very seriously." The Marine replied: "Why should we? Just one little ol' Arkansas mountain boy captured all ten of them last night and they had guns then." After that Capt. Kirnball took over from the co-pilot and spent the rest of the run bragging to the navigator over the interphone about how smart his four-month old daughter was back in San Diego.
Fuses are Dangerous
A favorite with the personnel, among many SCAT incidents was when a couple of multi-starred Russian generals were touring the South Pacific fighting fronts. First aboard the generals viewed the loading of several large aerial bombs with apparent apprehension. Finally one inquired if it was not "a little dangerous to take off with the bombs aboard." The pilot replied that "bombs are never dangerous it is the fuses." When everything had been stowed, a corporal boarded the transport with two gunny sacks, put them in a comer and resting his head on them promptly went to sleep. When everybody got off at the end of the trip one of the generals noticed the corporal handled the sacks somewhat gingerly and asked what was in them. "Just some bomb fuses, sir," was the reply.
In selecting pilots and co-pilots a great responsibility rests on the selectors. Aboard a SCAT transport in flight the pilot is in sole command. In his hands is the sole responsibility for safety of transport and passengers. It is entirely his own decision as to whether he should turn back because of weather uncertainty or ram ahead hell for leather. Many pilots from the U.S. arrive by ferrying their own planes from San Diego. Some take off and head out over the Pacific with more than 7,000 over-water miles ahead, never having made more than one or two navigational flights to strange fields. Most have not even had 100 hrs. in multi-engine ships. Rivalry between pilots and co-pilots is considerable. Nobody wants to be a "hydraulic engineer" what the co-pilots dub themselves because of many hours operating landing gear and flap controls.
Picking a Pilot
The system set up by MAG-25 and 403 TC Group for selecting pilots and co-pilots is patterned on commercial airline practices. A new man usually flies the line several months as a co-pilot. If he is deemed suitable for a pilot he is Sent through an instruction course by his own squadron and by the group. If he qualifies, he is turned over to a route and check pilot who makes final decision as to his suitability as a pilot in SCAT. with this final test passed he will take command of his own Flying boxcar. He flies cargo hops for about Six months, after which he can gain classification as a SCAT passenger pilot.
A pilot's need for more than ordinary capabilities is illustrated in a story told by Capt. Heard, a veteran of early Guadalcanal days. A SCAT pilot landed his transport on a New Hebrides strip in a rain squall only to discover when he reached the center of the runway that a New Zealand fighter plane was landing from the opposite direction. With no room to pass, the SCAT pilot, Lt. George A. Hinton, USMC, bore down on his left brake and dropped a wheel off the matting. This raised his Opposite wing just high enough for the fighter plane to pass under with a fraction of an inch to spare. Afterward the SCAT pilot commented that it was sure lucky I didn't tip the other way." The fighter pilot being a New Zealander was used to passing on the left and had probably started instinctively in that direction. Hinton had twelve wounded aboard, evacuated from Bougainville.
Diving a Transport
Another SCAT pilot, Capt. A. W. Dubois, USMC was on a night flight to Guadalcanal some months ago when he noticed a yellow light apparently following him. Jap patrol planes had been seen on the route and they often used yellow sodium lamps. Finally the navigator on watch through the dome reported the yellow light closing in fast. Dubois pushed the transport over into a vertical dive and they lost the light. The hand on the airspeed dial had gone around once completely, passed the 250 mph. top reading and was up to 50 mph. on the second round when they came out, according to Co-pilot Lt. William M. Street. The next morning it was discovered that the stress on the Douglas during the dive was so great that air pressure had bent in the Plexiglas on the leading edge landing lights.
SCAT also trains its own navigators in the schools of the MAG-25 and 403 TC groups and in a checkout system for navigators arriving from the U.S. Perfect navigation is essential. An error of a few degrees around the Solomons area could have put an entire transport into the drink or enemy hands.
Once on early flights into Bougainville, a three-transport formation had its fighter escort forced back and later lost its way in a turbulent, low-lying rain squall off the west coast. Flying parallel with the shore to find the airstrip, the SCAT formation passed over a Jap patrol of about 20 men in single file marching along the beach. The Japs were so surprised when the transports appeared about 75 ft. above their heads that they scattered into the jungle. It was determined later that SCAT's navigational error of a few degrees caused an air raid alert all over the Jap front. But SCAT takes pride that so far as can be determined a transport has never been lost or forced down because of faulty navigation.
A trip on the SCAT airline is like a ride on no other airline in the world. Suppose you are in Sydney Australia and have urgent business in Bougainville. You contact SCAT's office in Sydney for a reservation. If the request is sufficiently urgent you are assigned a priority. Rank is no criterion buck privates travel with high ranking officers. At the airport in Sydney you present the credentials to Capt. Gerald E.. Sheat pilot for the trip. After take-off, passengers who have traveled by SCAT before promptly curl up on heaps of flight clothing or other cargo and go to sleep. But at cruising altitude you are cold, you cannot smoke, so you make your way forward to the crew compartment where Capt. Shea has said an intermittent smoke will be permitted during the trip. After the smoke you return to the all-metal refrigerator that is the cabin at 10,000 ft., despite proximity of the equator. By 10 the next morning the transport approaches the Solomons. You look down on beautiful scenery and see the landmarks of the blazing infernos of battle that raged there more than a year ago, wrecked Jap ships and barges littering the coasts of the thick foliated islands. In bright blue coral reefs are yawning craters left by missiles of dive bombers. But among these rusting remnants of man's war machine the Solomon's natives continue their peaceful existence are their missions, huts and outrigger canoes gliding through azure water teeming with schools of fish. Near the gleaming beaches are the tiny clearings with an American flag floating proudly at one end where the serried ranks of little white crosses, row on row, with here and there a blade of a propeller, to mark where a brother airman sleeps forever.
Flying up through the Solomons the war becomes more alive. In the distance are myriad specks of bomber formations off to blast the Japs out of islands to the west. Below are LST's, destroyers and other ships. Occasionally an abandoned Jap landing strip is passed, grown over with long kunai grass swaying gently in the breeze. By now the SCAT transport is only a few hundred feet above the water. Occasionally a playful group of Corsairs or P-38's will swoop down and make friendly practice runs on you.
Over the Howitzers
Presently you see the long low outlines of Jap territory around Bougainville. The plane passes so close that individual trees can be made out along the shore. Occasional wisps of enemy campfire smoke or artillery firing drift up through the jungle. You think of the silent Japs below in the jungle looking up at your unarmed transport knowing it is bringing up supplies designed to blast them relentlessly as has so often happened in the past. As your transport approaches the field at Bougainville, your destination, you see the Jap lines seemingly just off the wingtip. When you land, you barely graze the upturned muzzles of heavy howitzers shelling the hidden enemy. On the field is a stream of wounded to be loaded on the transport for the return trip. As they are loaded aboard under the supervision of Lt. Elizabeth M. Sullivan of the Army Nurse Corps, Capt. Shea is checking every detail of the ship and a refueling truck has dashed from its place of concealment in the foliage along the landing strip. Then Co-pilot Lt. W. R. McGehee gives the engines a full out throttle test and the transport heads for the end of the landing strip, hewn from the jungle, for a return takeoff.
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