Robert D. Teran, Sandy, Utah: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, May 23, 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 18 and 19

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ROBERT D. TERAN M 23,2000 the Mississippi River, and I said, "Well, let s just stick together and then we will go and buzz the boats- the flat boats- down on the Mississippi River. We can watch up and see where these other guys go." So we did. We would go down and buzz across the top of them real close and everybody scattered to the inside of the flat boat, and we thought that was really a lot of fun. Well, we went up the first leg and we lost track of where they were. We did find where the checkpoint was, so we could make the next leg, and then we landed at the end of the second leg and got refueled because they were small planes with not too much fuel. We could talk to each other on the intercoms between our planes. We made the turn and we couldn't find the field, so I said, "You go over there and look," because they always put the names of the places and we knew where that was. "You go over there and look, and I will look over here, and then we will meet at a point and then we'll go and land." No sooner had I said that and I saw an ID name on a building, and I said, "Come on, let's go over here. Come on, we'll go in and land." We went and landed and refueled and, of course, they heard us, so instead of getting to go off together, they sent me off first. Then I had to fly on back the last leg by myself. We talked about that after. In fact, one of the lieutenants that was on the ground had heard us and when we graduated we had a get together and he told a story about us. He had heard about these people. He didn't remember who we were, but I guess it's just as well. WIN: Was this a two-engine plane? BOB: No, just a single-engine plane. You can't put a two-engine into a spin and expect 13