Franklin E. Walker, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, October 26, 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 161 and 162

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FRANKLIN E. WALKER 0 T B R 26 2000 FRA: No, not so much on that island. But of course all along New Guinea th n they were fighting and there was activity. The Marines were going up there and the rmy. There was a lot of military activity. And MacArthur's troops were going up along the bit island of New Guinea. BEN: So, how many were on your base then? Was it just your flight? FRA: As I remember, there were two squadrons and we traded off patrol areas. PBY squadrons. And there were fifteen planes, and I think eighteen crews in each squadron ­so it would be about two hundred men in each squadron, so it would be four hundred men, approximately, in the two squadrons. BEN: Okay. And what - I forgot - what did you think of life in the Pacific? Temperature-wise, climate-wise, was that ... FRA: Oh, it was not very pleasant. We used to go swimming a lot down in the bay there was a coral reef not too far from the shore. We would swim out there quite a bit when we had time. As I said though, when we were up there, we were flying night attack missions all of the time. Every third night we'd go out, and it was, as I said, fourteen to sixteen hours. I remember one flight was sixteen point six hours - and when you'd come back; you were supposed to sleep during the day time. We were on sea plane tenders there. Excuse me. A little later, we moved up on sea plane tenders after we left Woendi. Anyway, on the tenders during the day, they'd have guys chipping paint and making all kinds of noise, so you'd have a hard time sleeping during the day time, so that's where I was really needing sleep badly. 34