5/4/44: Today we got indefinite word of a crash out about fifteen miles the other side of Ardmore, so after waiting for more news & not getting any, the Crash Officer decided we’d better go & hunt for it. The Flight Control Tower said a plane had radioed in that a man had been seen to parachute out of a plane which had a motor on fire, & that was all the news we had.  So DeKorne, Sgts Sayers & Hunter, Lt. Bootelman (Communications), the Crash Officer & I took off in a command car.  We got out to the general location, way out in the country, & ambulances, fire trucks, etc. were all there, but not one could find out a thing.  They were starting to go back, but some native told us that someone told him that someone else told him that someone else had seen a plane flying low in such and such a place, so we decided to take a look.  It looked like a wild goose chase, & we got onto a horribly muddy road.  What a ride – up to a certain point, when we got into a low place where there were foot deep ruts filled with red muddy water.  Right in the middle of it we got STUCK.  It was about 10:45 then.  We had no winch to haul ourselves out, & no shovel.  Well we all got covered with thick heavy mud, from head to foot.  It was too funny for words, in a way, & for a while we weren’t worried.  Then after trying to pry it loose with limbs of trees, boards, etc. we found we had a flat tire on the left rear wheel – up to the axle in mud & with both rear & front axles on the mud, suspending us so that 4 wheel drive didn’t even help.

 

Well I decided I’d try to find a farmer where we might be able to get a shovel, so I started walking.  Only walked about ¼ mile when I found an old shovel with a home-made handle.  That shovel saved the day, eventually after a couple of hours of rebuilding the road, filling up the ruts & digging the axles clear.  We got free from the mud-hole by 2:15 after a great deal of work, & then got home by 4:30 PM, hungry as bears.  The final news was that the whole thing was a false alarm, & someone had been jittery & used an overactive imagination.  You should have seen us though.

 

5/5/44: I’m enclosing a shot of us, stuck in the mud.  Pretty good, isn’t it?  It is a good thing we had the camera along, to prove that we hadn’t just been taking the day off fishing, as was suggested by certain wisecrackers.