From the Wildcat Creek to the Salween River (And back)

From the Wildcat Creek to the Salween River

(And back)

In December of 1940 the depredation of world war had not yet involved American military forces. There was American involvement – specifically in Asia – but it was in the form of mercenaries working for the Chinese government. China was being ravaged by the advancing Imperial Japanese forces and could muster only limited resistance. Three years earlier, in 1937, retired U. S. Army Air Corps Captain, Claire Chennault had been asked by Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek to help organize, train, and advise the Chinese Air Force. After months of negotiations Chennault answered the call and took with him a few hundred former U.S. military fighter pilots. This group of mercenaries became known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG) and acquired the nickname The Flying Tigers.

In Lafayette, Indiana…about the same time Chennault began negotiating with the Chinese, Richard Force was finishing his scholastic career. He had attended grammar school at Saint Boniface Catholic School on North Street. But by the 7th grade the Franciscan nuns had lost their stronghold on young Force. He never saw the halls of a high school.

Eventually Dick’s parents, Nora and William Force, moved their family of three boys…an older son also named William (Billy), Richard (Dick), and younger son Tom…to nearby Mulberry, Indiana. William Sr. worked as a telegraph operator for the Nickel Plate Railroad in the small city of Frankfort not far away. Even by 2008 standards Mulberry can be considered a sleepy, rural farming community.

During the summers in Mulberry Dick and his brothers could often be found fishing and swimming in the secluded, trickling waters of the nearby Wildcat Creek. It’s a good bet that the boys consumed a few bottles of beer at those secluded locations too. And since he wasn’t attending school, Dick often sought employment at one of the farms around Mulberry. On a few occasions he was known to disappear completely. After weeks of not knowing his whereabouts, Dick’s parents would receive a letter or telegram from him informing them that he had joined up with a traveling carnival and that everything was okay.

At 17 years old, like most young American men in 1940, Richard Force heard his nation’s call to service. He knew of the tyranny and oppression that was spreading in other parts of the world and felt the need to ensure it didn’t take away the freedom and liberties he enjoyed as a young man along the Wildcat Creek. Perhaps he sought refuge from the grips of the Great Depression. Whatever the reason, he answered the call of his nation and donned its uniform. In December of that year, without a high school diploma and with the knowledge and approval of his parents, Dick altered the date on his birth certificate and enlisted in the U.S. Army at the supposed age of 18.

Initially Dick had sought enlistment in the U.S. Navy. But because of physical and medical limitations he did not qualify for service as a crewman aboard ship.

From Mulberry, Dick was sent for his induction and basic training at Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama. After his basic training he was assigned to duty with the U.S. Army Air Corps (the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force).

Following his basic training Dick was sent to Jefferson Barracks in Lemay, Missouri just south of St. Louis. This was a holding company assignment to await his class convening date for the first of several schools he would attend. While at Jefferson Barracks he was assigned to KP duty at the base mess hall and often found himself assisting in the facility’s butcher shop. Finally, in the late spring of 1941, class space was available and he was sent to the Air Corps’ School of Aeronautics in Oakland, California. This school would teach Dick all aspects of aircraft maintenance…from nose to tailfin, and wingtip to wingtip.

Upon completion of the aeronautics school, in the late summer of 1941, Dick was assigned to the 12th Air Service Squadron (ASS), a subordinate unit of the 68th Air Service Group (ASG). While training with the 12th ASS, Dick was stationed in Sunnyvale, California at Moffett Field which was then an Army Air Corps facility.

It was here that Dick recalls what he was doing when he heard the news of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. He was playing a game of pool with actor Jimmy Stewart who had also been assigned to the 12th ASS. (Stewart was eventually reassigned to a USO troupe and did not travel overseas with the 68th ASG.)

For the next two years, in preparation for his unit’s deployment overseas, Dick would travel across the country and back to attend military training, and various schools to complement aircraft maintenance such as a class in welding, and Fuel Cell Maintenance School in Akron, Ohio.

Initially Dick wanted to attend the Army’s parachute school. But, he was told that would necessitate a much longer wait before being sent into action. He decided to go ahead with fuel cell maintenance so that he would get into actual service sooner rather than later. The fuel cell school lasted four to five weeks. At that time aircraft fuel cells were being constructed of self-sealing rubber by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company also located in Akron. The Army probably chose to locate this school in Akron so that it could be co-located with Goodyear.

While attending school in Akron, the 68th ASG’s headquarters was directed to relocate from Pendleton, Oregon to southern California to conduct specific training for the Group’s deployment overseas. Exactly where overseas they would deploy was not yet known. So, instead of being sent directly back to southern California, Dick was sent via Oregon to assist with the relocation of the Group’s headquarters. He would be traveling by train from Ohio to Oregon by way of Chicago, Illinois. Before leaving Akron he requested permission to take leave in route to Oregon so that he could visit his family in Indiana. When he departed Akron he had not yet received approval of his request for leave. Nevertheless, when his train stopped in Chicago he disembarked and sought transportation south to Lafayette and Mulberry (roughly 100 miles south of Chicago). Considering that deserters and AWOL soldiers were being severely punished, this was somewhat of a brazen decision.

When Dick arrived in Mulberry he happened to be looking over his military transfer orders with his father, himself a military veteran. It was then that the two of them realized that Dick’s orders stipulated that he was supposed to report to the 68th ASG in only three days time. As a result, he was only able to spend one day in Mulberry before continuing his trek to Oregon. Nora Force accompanied her son back to the Chicago train station.

By the time Dick arrived in Pendleton, Oregon at the 68th ASG’s airbase, the unit had already departed for California. Along with a few other men that had arrived late, Army transportation put them on yet another train and sent them to southern California.

Upon his return to southern California, Dick and the 68th ASG continued training and preparing for their overseas movement at Moffett Field in Sunnyvale. In addition to continued training, the troops were required to ensure all aircraft technical manuals were up-to-date, securely packed, and ready for shipping.

Finally, in November of 1943 the 68th ASG was ordered to join the 14th Air Force in southern China. As successors of the AVGs, the 14th AF had assumed the nickname The Flying Tigers.

The Group loaded all their assets onto a U.S. Navy troop transport ship at Wilmington, California and on November 10th, 1943 began their voyage half-way around the world to Bombay, India. The ship, the USS Hermitage (AP-54), had been an Italian luxury cruise liner known as the SS Conte Biancamano. It was captured in the Panama Canal on December 11th, 1941 when Italy declared war on the U.S.

When looking at a map, the Hermitage’s route to India was clearly much longer than it might have been. The ship sailed via Perth, in the southwestern corner of Australia, with stops along the way at south Pacific islands. But because of the ship’s intended use as a luxury liner, and thereby lack of armament, this route was a necessity. With fleet assets tied up in confrontations against the Japanese navy, and defending the Pacific approaches to the U.S. mainland, there were no escort vessels available. With no means of defending itself, the ship took an out-of –the-way route to avoid the Japanese submarines patrolling the Pacific Ocean.

Although the country was at war, nautical tradition was still observed aboard the Hermitage. When the ship arrived at the equator, the ship’s crew found time to conduct the traditional “Shellback” ceremonies and initiated Richard, and the other men of the 68th into the “Realm of Neptunus Rex.” The initiation of non-Shellbacks, or “pollywogs,” at the equator crossing can best be described as a day-long hazing ceremony that involves a significant amount of the ship’s garbage. The tradition continues in the Navy of the 21st century.

On December 26th, 1943 the USS Hermitage and the 68th ASG arrived at Bombay, on the western coast of India. There, the unit was ordered to proceed to the area of Kunming, China where they would operate indefinitely.

From Bombay the 68th, with all of its equipment, made its way by rail to Calcutta on the eastern coast of India. This portion of their trip was wrought with several transfers from one rail line to another. At that time, there wasn’t a standard rail gauge in use in southern Asia. This meant that one railroad company’s engines and cars would not fit on another company’s rail lines. Eventually the unit arrived upon the Army’s Kanchrapara staging area near Calcutta on January 2nd 1944.

From this point forward, a detailed history of the 68th ASG and the12th ASS can found at http://www.cbi-history.com/part_vi_68th_asg.html But from a personal aspect, there is more to be told about Dick’s time with the 14th Air Force in the China, Burma, India (CBI) Theater.

To pass their time in China, many of the troops got involved in baseball and softball teams that were supported by their respective squadron. Rivalry became so intense that there was even a CBI league with standings, and a post-season championship. As a lover of baseball, Dick naturally joined his squadron’s team. General Chennault was also an active player in the league. Consequently, when their teams met for games, Dick would have personal and private conversations with the General. Most of the time the conversations revolved around baseball, either in their own league, or the major leagues back home. And, they would also talk about their job. Dick is always quick to say that Chennault made it clear to him that he had an “open-door policy” when it came to keeping his aircraft ready for flight.

As Crew Chief, Flight Engineer, and top turret gunner, maintenance and airworthiness of his aircraft was Dick’s primary responsibility. In the far flung reaches of southern Asia, that open-door policy with General Chennault was comforting but sometimes useless with regard to obtaining repair parts. Dick often found himself bartering and scavenging for parts necessary to keep his B-25 Mitchell flying. It was a plane that bore the appropriate pin-up girl ‘nose art’ …which Dick painted himself among the many other aircraft he painted…and was applicably named “Miss Mitchell” by his aircrew.

When Dick’s squadron acquired the aircraft one of its two engines was known to be questionable. It was that engine that worried Dick. The B-25 can fly on one engine…providing that one engine is in good shape. But what if an enemy fighter or shrapnel rendered the plane’s good engine inoperable? Would the remaining, questionable engine be capable of keeping the aircraft aloft?

Another one of the sacrifices of life in their remote outpost was the lack of refrigeration, or even a supply of ice to chill beverages – which usually included a supply of beer. So, as maintenance chief, Dick would sometimes schedule a maintenance check-flight just prior to an aircrew or squadron party. Before takeoff the beer would be loaded onto Miss Mitchell. The “check-flight” would be flown to an altitude where the temperatures would be near freezing. The aircraft would remain at that altitude until the beer was thoroughly chilled, and then would land, with cold beer, just in time for the party.

During Dick’s tour in China he flew 42 bombing missions in Miss Mitchell. Many times during those missions the plane encountered Japanese fighters and enemy ground fire. But luck was on Miss Mitchell’s side and she always returned from her missions. Eventually that luck ran out. Returning from Dick’s 40th mission with the aircraft, in the area of Rangoon, Burma, Miss Mitchell was hit with shots fired from the guns of a Japanese fighter. It was a “Zero.” Unfortunately, the concerns Dick had about his plane’s bad engine panned out. The Zero hit Miss Mitchell’s good engine and it was out of commission. And just as Dick had expected, the bad engine was unable to keep the plane airborne. The aircraft was going down and the crew had to bail out. The rest of the crew bailed out and were safely rescued. But Dick and aircraft commander, Major L. L. Lancaster, were the last to bail out. Consequently the two landed in enemy territory.

On the ground, Dick and Major Lancaster rendezvoused and would spend the next several weeks avoiding Japanese soldiers searching for them. The Japanese soldiers saw their parachutes deploy and knew the two landed safely. Their search was intense. Today, Dick can’t be precise about the number of days he, and Lancaster, spent MIA (missing in action). But he does know that it was in the neighborhood of 49 to 60 days.

Their first night was spent sleeping in a jungle where they made hammocks out of their parachutes. In the first days, eventually the two would encounter friendly Chinese citizens -- farmers who volunteered to assist them in eluding enemy capture. Neither Dick, nor Major Lancaster spoke Chinese. But, they knew the Chinese farmers were friendly and trusted them because they were allowed to retain the pistols with which they had bailed out of Miss Mitchell.

From that point on they were essentially controlled by an ‘underground railroad.’ For the next several weeks the two were hidden in all sorts of isolated farms and villages as they made their way north along the Salween River in Burma. The farmers and villagers would offer food and lodging before sending them to the next hideout. Naturally, the meals they were always offered included rice. Consequently, to this day, Dick will not eat dishes that include rice. In some cases the villagers would offer the men companionship of young village women. But, just like all U.S. troops arriving in China, the two had been briefed about this practice. They were told that accepting the companionship of these young women was ill advised. The villagers often used this ploy as measure of respect and trustworthiness.

As U.S. air crewmen, sewn into the lining of their flight jackets were what was known as a “blood chit.” The blood chits were notices printed in Chinese that informed the locals that this foreign airman was fighting for China and they were obliged to lend assistance. Translated, the text of a blood chit read as follows:

"I am an American airman. My plane is destroyed. I cannot speak your language. I am an enemy of the Japanese. Please give me food and take me to the nearest Allied military post. You will be rewarded."

One vivid memory Dick recalls is hiding under the bed in a small farmhouse as Japanese soldiers approached searching for him and Lancaster. As he watched the soldiers’ boots move around the room he thought that he’d surely be discovered. Luckily he wasn’t.

On another occasion, in a rice paddy, Dick aided a Chinese woman giving birth.

Eventually, after paralleling the Salween River for nearly two months, probably sometime in late July or early August of 1945, Dick and Major Lancaster found themselves in the vicinity of their airbase at Kunming, China and were repatriated with their squadron. Dick would fly another two bombing missions before receiving the news of the Japanese surrender in mid-August that was eventually formalized on September 2nd, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri.

When he was given orders to return home, Dick departed the CBI Theater on a ship from Karachi harbor with essentially the clothes on his back. He had gotten word that other troops were being held up in Customs because of all the belongings with which they returned to the United States. Dick didn’t want to take any chance of being delayed so he took nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

Dick returned to the United States in New York Harbor via the Suez Canal, Mediterranean Sea and an Atlantic Ocean transit. This route completed another small milestone. Except for his travel across the United States, he circumnavigated the globe in a ship. After a short stay at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, Dick boarded a train to Indianapolis, and then took a bus to Frankfort, Indiana. In Frankfort he walked to meet his father who was working nearby in the Nickel Plate Railroad offices. A short time thereafter, Dick was again fishing in the Wildcat Creek.