After almost 15 months in China and I don't know how many missions, I had accumulated enough combat hours in the air to receive orders for a return to the States, along with several others in my squadron.

The medical Officer of our unit called each of us in for a required physical. During our visit, I noticed a tinge of jealousy on his part, but put it out of my mind.

On May 3rd, 1945 we boarded a C-46 for the first leg of our return home. I had always hated the C-46 because I thought it looked like a pregnant whale, but this was different--I was headed home halfway around the world.

Our first stop was Chabua, India with a two day layover. Leaving there on the 6th, we had 2 stops; the first at a city with an unpronouncable name, then Agra before arriving at Karachi, India--now called Pakistan. We were stuck in Karachi for almost 5 weeks, which passed agonizonally slow.

After about a week there, I found that there was a unit of the Royal Canadian Air Force stationed there, and I reported to the Squadron Commander of that unit that I would gladly serve as Crew Chief on one of their planes returning to Canada if there was a chance I could speed up my return home. He was sympathetic and duly recorded my offer to volunteer. I never did hear back from them, and maybe it was just as well, because the squadron was made up of Lancaster Bombers, and I didn't know didly about them, but was willing to fake it.

On June 11th we boarded another C-46 headed for Cairo, Egypt and then to Benghazi. The following day took us to Tripoli. On the 13th we flew to Casablanca, staying there until the early morning of the 15th.

That morning we boarded a C-54, a great 4 engine aircraft for the rest of the journey. The first stop was the Azore Islands, over 6 hours flight time. During this time I got to thinking about our medical Officer back in Kunming, and remembered that he had given each of us an envelope addressed to The Ranking Medical Officer, Port of Disembarkation, USA.

My memory of his somewhat jealous remarks at the time of my physical 6 weeks before, prompted me to open the letter. It read: "This airman, S/Sgt Thomas Flanagan, ASN 17070285, has been physically examined by me on this date, May 1, 1945, and found to be in excellent physical condition. It is my recommendation that he be returned to the China, Burma, India theater of operations after a 45 day period of rest and rehabilitation." It was signed by him showing his rank of Major, US Air Corps.

After some cursing and carrying on, and showing this to my fellow 322nd buddies, they found their letters, and we all tore them to shreds with loud cheers.

Following lunch at the Azores, we flew to Harmon Field in Newfoundland for refueling for the last leg of the flight. My log book shows that we landed at an air base in the New York City area at 3:10 AM on June 16th. The simple entry that followed was the word "hurrah."

Copyright 1999 H.Thomas Flanagan