Martin, Boy from Nebraska, pp. 55–56.
7
Ibid., pp. 59–60.
CHAPTER 5: “ARE YOU AN AMERICAN CITIZEN?”
1
Craven and Cate, Men and Planes, pp. 205–206.
2
Details of Ben Kuroki’s initial activities at Barksdale Field are drawn from his August 26–27, 1998, interview with filmmaker Bill Kubota for the Most Honorable Son documentary, unedited footage, and from Martin, Boy from Nebraska, pp. 59–60. The quote from Ben is from the Kubota interview.
3
Ralph Martin places Ben’s kitchen duty at Barksdale Field in a two-week period after his arrival, when he was awaiting assignment to an operational unit. See Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 60.
4
Craven and Cate, Men and Planes, pp. 57–58.
5
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 61.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid., p. 62. Martin incorrectly identifies the squadron commander as a “Major Zadalis.” His name was Stanley A. Zidiales, and he was a second lieutenant at the time. Zidiales commanded the 409th Squadron from March 26, 1942, to July 12, 1942, when K. K. Compton assumed leadership of the squadron.
8
Exactly how Ben was informed of the reprieve is the subject of conflicting accounts. Ralph G. Martin describes the first sergeant rousing Ben as he slept in his bunk and asking Ben if he would like to remain with the 93rd, to which Ben replied in the affirmative. At this point, in Martin’s telling, the first sergeant informed Ben that he would be remaining with the group. See Martin, p. 63. The definitive history of the 93rd Bomb Group offers a slightly different account. “The day before the group left Barksdale, the CO called Ben in again, and told him to pack his barracks bag. He was going with them to Florida,” the account reads. See Carroll (Cal) Stewart, Ted’s Travelling Circus (Lincoln, Nebraska: Sun/ World Communications, 1996), p. 43.
CHAPTER 6: “IN NO SENSE READY FOR CONFLICT”
1
“Special Task Force Given Last Touches,” Fort Myers (Florida) News-Press, May 15, 1942, pp. 1 and 3. Halverson’s secret orders called for his detachment to join the Tenth Air Force in China to conduct raids on the Japanese home islands. But a Japanese offensive in China disrupted the plan, and Halverson and his men had gotten no farther than Egypt when they received a change of orders. On June 11, 1942, thirteen B-24s of the Halverson Project (HALPRO) carried out the first US air raid on Europe when they bombed oil refineries in Ploiesti, Romania.
2
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 64.
3
Ibid., pp. 65–66.
4
Biographical material on Chaplain James A. Burris is drawn from federal census and military records, including his 1940 draft registration card, and various newspaper articles. These include “Chaplain Asks Divorce: Wife Ruined His Career, Says Capt. James A. Burris,” Kansas City Times, August 12, 1944, p. 12, an account of Burris’s wartime marital problems that includes useful biographical information; “Major Burris Honored,” Cassville (Missouri) Republican, August 29, 1946, p. 1; and “New Chaplain Is Assigned to MacDill Field,” Tampa Tribune, May 11, 1947, p. 17.
5
Martin, Boy from Nebraska, p. 65.
6
The first German submarine was credited to the 93rd crew commanded by First Lieutenant John L. (Jack) Jerstad, affectionately known to his comrades as Jerk Jerstad. Rollin Reineck, author interview, September 23, 1991. Reineck was the navigator of the Jerstad crew, although he wasn’t aboard the aircraft when his comrades sank the submarine in the Gulf of Mexico in June 1942. Crew members later described the submarine sinking in an article for Air Force magazine. See Captain Arthur Gordon, “Dream Crew,” Air Force, October 1943, pp. 8–9. The second submarine was sunk on June 21, 1942, by the 93rd crew commanded by First Lieutenant B. F. Williams. See “B-24 Crew Cited for Sinking U-Boat on June 21 in the Gulf of Mexico,” Palm Beach (Florida) Post, July 26, 1942, p. 2; “Plane Crew Cited for Sinking U-Boat,” New York Times, July 26, 1942.
7
James Parton, Air Force Spoken Here (Bethesda, Maryland: Adler & Adler, 1986), pp. 168–70. Parton was General Ira Eaker’s aide-de-camp in England.
8
H. H. Arnold, Global Mission (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949), p. 329.
9
Stewart, Ted’s Travelling Circus, p. 43.
CHAPTER 7: QUEEN OF THE SEAS
