Joseph A. Cha, Price, Utah: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, June 28, 2002: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 460 & 461

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JO EPHA.CHA J 2 2002 WIN: I guess the missions of the airplanes then was, was it to a s s bomb damag r was it to photograph enemy troop locations? JOE: Well, we lost a pilot and P-38. I was assistant crew chief on this plane. It was a brand new plane. It was a G-series, a beautiful plane. Everything on that plane was automatic. They even came out with hydraulic ailerons. The pilots were kind of worried about that hydraulic aileron, you know? It was a new modification to that plane. This pilot, I don't remember his name. He was a second lieutenant. He took off. That's when they were pulling the invasion of the Anzio beachhead. He went to fly to photograph that and the plane never did come back. The guys waited at the airbase there but he never did come back. That's the only plane that we lost when I was there during the war. WIN: That's the only one you lost? JOE: But this Lieutenant Toomey, he was shot down twice. Twice he was shot down over enemy lines. He lost both planes but he was able work his way back to the squadron. WIN: Did he fly again? JOE: Oh, yes. He loved to fly. He, like some others of those pilots, took two tours. [Editor's note: In the Air Corps pilots or other air crew who completed a .fixed number of combat missions (a tour) or were eligible to rotate home. Length of a tour early in the war was twenty-five combat missions. This was later increased to thirty-five combat missions.] They'd fly a tour, go home, come back and go on a second tour. They'd fly. It's just like they say, "If you get bucked off a horse, you'd better climb right back on him, again." That's what they'd do. 29