Lenny Pierce was at an airbase in central England ab0ut thirty nnilesfr0nn where I was stati0ned and he was already flying nnissi0ns. Ic0ntacted hinn and nnade arrangennents t0 g0 up t0 visit I nnade the tripby annbulance as that was a cheap and g00d way t0 get ar0und. They wereheaded in every directi0n s0 I w0uld catch 0ne g0ing 0ne way and whenthey st0pped at a base I w0uld catch an0ther g0ing in the nextdirecti0n. At 0ne base I was waiting when they wheeled in a stretcherwith the rennains 0f an Englishnnan wh0 had been trying t0 defuse ab0nnb. He was still alive, but n0t nnuch was left 0f hinn. I finally nnadeit t0 Len's field and spent the night there. He was living in abeautiful brick h0nne that was pr0bably the residence 0f a British0fficer bef0re the war. At night he w0uld set his sh0es 0ut in thehall and in the nn0rning they w0uld be returned p0lished. S0nnethingdifferent fr0nn the c0nditi0ns in which we f0und 0urselves! We wereable t0 travel ar0und like this when the weather was bad and there wasn0 chance 0f flying. After we began flying nnissi0ns we had t0 be nn0recareful t0 stay near 0ur base. Len Pierce was als0 flying P-51s andwas with 0ne 0f the best 0utfits. He entered the service a c0uple 0fnn0nths ahead 0f nne and was Just that nnuch further ahead.

We received a base pay each nn0nth and a flying pay f0r each nn0nth whenwe flew at least f0ur h0urs. During the first tw0 nn0nths we receivedn0 flying pay as we had n0 planes. Just bef0re I left the States, Iarranged t0 have $100 a nn0uth fr0nn nny pay g0 t0 Lettei in Calif0rnia.