“When I got down to 1,000 feet, I decided we’d had about enough, so I fired the rockets at God-knows-what target, then headed for the deck with the throttle wide open. These Avengers…

“I was flying Hot Shot Charlie’s left wing, but I don’t recall who else was in our division. An Atago class heavy cruiser was our designated target. Since we didn’t have any torpedoes,…

“We’ve been hit.”—By William A. Balk, Sr. Dispatches from The Esso Club By Ted Balk   CENTRAL South Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—10/13/2014— CHAPTER III The Invasion of Leyte By October 2, the Marines had established…

“We’ve been hit.”—By William A. Balk, Sr. Dispatches from The Esso Club By Ted Balk Note by Ted Balk: This sixth installment of my late father’s memoir continues the saga of his wartime…

“When I checked our fuel I realized I had another problem. We usually had enough fuel for about 30 minutes extra flying time after a long-range mission. I knew I was going to…

“When I got down to 1,000 feet, I decided we’d had about enough, so I fired the rockets at God-knows-what target, then headed for the deck with the throttle wide open. These Avengers…

“Us: ‘Snakeoil, this is Famous 87, do you read me?’ Snakeoil: ‘Roger, Famous, this is Snakeoil. Are you the plane with the diamond on the tail?’ Us: ‘Roger, that’s us. What can we…

“When we were finished for the night, we got ready to fly back to Pearl Harbor. We usually had more pilots than planes and took turns piloting, which meant some had to ride…

“Just before I was slated to start the eye exams, Quinton Lumpkin appeared on the scene and motioned for me to follow him. He found an empty room, then told me he had…

“This certainly would not be my first pig-cooking, but pit-mastering for this particular couple demanded that I produce the best results possible. I wanted to honor my friends, of course, but there was…