21. My Back Hurts This was taken in a nearby village, I think the natives carried rice products in those bags. My back was not built for that labor intense work. I was really impressed how the locals harvested their rice, so primitive but so effective! They have been doing this for hundreds of years without machinery.

As I have mentioned I left on an emergency leave from my outfit in Seoul. I was working in my power shop when someone came over to the shop and told me the Capt. wanted to see me, I reported as instructed and was told that our company had received a message via ( MARS) radio that my mother was dying, and I was being granted an emergency leave. I left our company and all my friends within a few minutes, took off from Young Dong Po in a C124 for Tokyo, upon arrival we were told not to leave the barracks as a flight could be leaving any minute. About two AM we were awaken and told to get moving as a plane was leaving for state side, we complied of course.

It was a corsair constellation plane, it had tree tails and was operated by Flying Tiger Lines, there were 88 passengers plus the crew all is well and we make a stop in Wake Island for fuel we then head for Hawaii and that's when all hell broke loose, it started to bumpy, then we started to nose dive, then we would shoot straight up then down again and we would drop again and again, one such drop we were told later on was 2500 feet, we were flying at 22000 when this hit and when it finally let go of us ,we were at 5000 feet, we were all prepared to ditch they gave us pillows and showed us how to hang on when we hit water.

The wind was so loud outside that as another GI and I could hear it over the roar of the Prop Jets and I was seated next to the rear exit door and frost formed all around the door seal. When that 2500 foot drop occurred an attendant was coming to the back of the plane and she went right up to the ceiling and a woman with a child on her lap went right up to the ceiling. This was the ride from hell, to make matters worse most everyone was throwing up. There was a woman seated just behind me and I turned around to see if she needed help and just at that moment she threw up, almost in my face, that did it for me I also threw up at that very sight. I could only think that I was going home to see my dying mother and I would most likely die out here in the Pacific Ocean where we would never be found. As we prepared to ditch we even had our boots unlaced so we could kick them off in the water, this whole nightmare lasted 30 to 45 minutes, that was a lifetime for all of us. I still thank God for sparing us that night.    Hi-Res Pic (91K)