“The plane must have been more badly damaged than I thought,” commented Bill. “The landing gear must have torn off some of the fusilage when it hit. In any event, I am glad that you arrived when you did.”
The tug had almost reached the target by this time. The crew maneuvered until they came along side the target and then caught the loose end of the cable. It was a long, tedious job to pull the end of the cable from the bottom of the ocean, but was finally accomplished. Once more the target was being drawn through the water at the end of the cable and the tug headed back toward the bay.
“What did you do with my plane?” asked Batten when Bill arrived at the aviation field.
“We received a radio message from Breene telling us that you were going to land, but why pick out the ocean?” responded Batten.
“You talk as if I had landed in the water eight miles from shore through choice,” said Bill, somewhat peeved.
Bill was wet and most uncomfortable. He had been through a trying, nerve-racking experience and could not see that Batten was joking with him.
“It was a good plane, anyhow,” replied Batten. “Now I will have to break in another one. You had a mighty lucky escape and showed good headwork in getting away with nothing more than a wetting. I would hate to have to swim around in that cold water and wait for a slow old tug to come up and pick me up.”
The days followed along with regular squadron work. More artillery observation, aerial gunnery and bombing and the maintenance of the equipment. Then one morning Captain Smith told the officers that they would have searchlight practice with the anti-aircraft artillery that night.
Night flying was not a new thing to any of the officers of the squadron, but none of them had ever before gone up with the one purpose of dodging the searchlights. The drill was to give the searchlight men practice in locating airplanes and holding the beam on them at night.
Early in the evening the planes were all out on the line but Bill’s. The mechanics had not quite finished the work incidental with the installation of the equipment. Bill had just received a new airplane prior to his return from Oregon. The old engine had been replaced with a new one and then the radio, machine guns and bomb racks were put in place. Bill hoped that his plane would be ready for the night’s flying. Sergeant Breene was sure that it would.