So lets get started on this trip and see where we might go.

For starters....I will remember things that happened but I doubt I'll remember all the details. I'll probably point this fact out when I get into something where having a complete remembrance is terribly important for understanding the story.

For example......in March or April of 1943 (the actual month is not the controlling piece of information about this story) I was copilot on a C87 trip from India to Khartoum in Egypt. As I remember it I think the trip was about 12 to 14 hours long with one stop some place in Arabia.

Not one of the five member crew took a nap en route from Karachi. That operating procedure changed after this trip for this crew.

We arrived in the Khartoum area about midnight. During the approach part of the arrival several things happened in the cockpit in so far as sharing information between crew members and the tower. The C87 had a bad habit of burning out landing lights on approach so that was a factor that was discussed. I would turn on the landing lights as we rolled into final approach. Our captain was Bill Reedholm, one of the best of the best. Bill told me to tell the tower we would be circling to the right to line up on final instead of the left. I talked to the tower and there was no problem. I asked Bill why and he asked me if I remembered all the mines in the area that stuck up about 250 to 300 feet that we had talked about on our approach during our stop there on the way to India 10 days or so before. Since we were conducting the approach from 1500 feet above the ground it didn't seem too important since either way, right or left turns, we would be well above the hills. I imagine in 65 years there have been some changes made in the area but there was nothing but darkness where we were maneuvering until we were on final approach toward the airport. We started our right turn on to final approach. As we started our rollout to the final approach heading Bill called for the landing lights. I flipped them on and watched the one on the right wing burn out. However it took just enough time to burn out to let me see tree tops just beneath the right wing tip in the turn. I have no recollection of how I worded that information for Bill but I suspect it was loud and profane. Later checking showed we had been circling at 250 feet above the ground and not 1500. If we had used a left turn approach instead of the right turn approach we would have been in the hills.
And we would still be there.

See what I mean? Some information is very important and other parts are fillers. I'll do the best I can.

My First Post!!

This is my first post. Bear with me.