“Good God!
“Wilkins said.
“And we can’t put the 17 into Vis,” Dolan said.
“Right,” Fine said.
“Jesus, now what?” Douglass asked.
“Canidy expects us at daybreak.”
“So we use the B-17 for the drop,” Dolan said.
“And it comes back here. And we send the B-25 to Vis. No problem.”
“No,” Wilkins said.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Fine asked.
“Maintenance found landing-gear problems,” he said.
“They called me and told me it would take twenty-four hours, maybe a little more, to replace what was broken.”
“Then you’ll have to get us another 17,”Fine said.
“There will be a lot of questions asked why someone wants to borrow a bomber,” Wilkins said.
Darmstadter’s mind had been racing. He thought he saw a solution. But he was reluctant to offer it. These people, he told himself, know what they’re doing.
I’m just a mediocre Gooney Bird pilot.
And then he thought, Fuck it!
“If there would be only the team, five men, on the Gooney Bird,” he said “it would be very light. It would take another ton and a half, maybe two, before it got close to Max Over Gross.”
“If you’re talking about fuel,” Dolan said, not unkindly, “we just don’t have time to rig auxiliary fuel tanks.” | “I’m talking about fifty-five-gallon drums,” Darmstadter plunged on, “and| hand pumps to replenish the fuel in the main tanks as it’s burned off.”
“Hey!” Dolan said after a moment’s thought.
“Would that work, John?” Fine asked.
“Eight fifty-five-gallon drums would weigh thirty-two hundred pounds Dolan said.
“A little over a ton and a half. And that would be another four hun dred gallons. More than enough to get a Gooney Bird from here to Pecs, andi|j then to Vis.”
“And you can get a Gooney Bird into Vis?” Douglass said.
Dolan thought that over a moment before replying.
“Yeah,” he said after a momentI think Brother Darmstadter and I could sit a Gooney Bird down on Vis in one piece.” He caught Darmstadter’s eye an4 went on. “”We’ll have to get the tail wheel down before we hit the stream, going in. If we were still up on the main gear, we’d go over on our nose. Getting| out will be easier; we’ll just keep the tail wheel on the ground till we’re i| through the water.” , ,g Darmstadter nodded his understanding. | “Could Brother Darmstadter and me sit one down in one piece?” Douglasl asked. ‘, Dolan looked at him. “You don’t have hardly any Gooney Bird time, Colonel,” Dolan said, after 9, moment. , “But I don’t have dysentery, either,” Douglass said.
“Canidy told me about,!
your’dysentery,”John” “Canidy has a big mouth,” Dolan said.
“And I’m all right.”
“I don’t think we can take a chance on that, John,” Douglass said.
“I’m missing something here,” Wilkins said.
“I’m afraid Commander Dolan will not be able to go,” Douglass said, “Whatever plans we make will have to exclude him.”
“First of all, that’d be Fine’s decision,” Dolan said.
“And you haven’t heardj me out.”
“Go ahead, Commander,” Fine said, and immediately wondered why he I called Dolan by his rank.
“Darmstadter knows more about dropping… what is it they ‘sticks’… sticks of paratroopers than anybody else. And he’s also the off
one of us with any experience to speak of flying a Gooney Bird on the deck.
And the only way we’re going to be able to find Pecs and not get ourselves shot down is to go in on the deck.”
“Okay, that takes care of Darmstadter,” Douglass said.
“He flies the Gooney Bird. We’re talking about who goes with him. We’re talking about your’ dysentery “I was flying cross-country using a road map before anybody else here was out of diapers,” Dolan said.
“I’m the only one here who can, for sure, find this meadow Canidy has picked out for us.”
“That presumes you don’t have another… attack of dysentery,” Douglass said “If, for example, you were to go in the Gooney Bird,” Dolan went on, ignoring him, “that would leave me and Fine to fly the 25 to Vis. Captain Fine is not what you could call an experienced B-25 pilot. I hate to think what would happen if he had to try to land the B-25 on Vis.”