The Secret Rescue by Cate Lineberry Read Free Book Online Page B

boarded the plane and sat across from Jens. Also from Kentucky, from a small town that shared his last name, was William Eldridge, who’d worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad before the war. The oldest of the men was thirty-six-year-old Robert Cranson from New Haven, New York, one of four medics who were married. The other three included Wolf, Gordon MacKinnon from Los Angeles, California, and Charles Zeiber, an easygoing twenty-six-year-old newlywed from Reading, Pennsylvania. Also on board were Jim Cruise from Brockton, Massachusetts; Raymond Ebers from Steeleville, Illinois; the odd man out, Hornsby from the 802nd; and Charles Adams of Niles, Michigan, whose brother had been taken prisoner by the Japanese on Wake Island in December 1941 and was being held in a prison camp in Shanghai.
    Two of the passengers were never intended to be on the flight. Abbott had switched places at the last minute with one of the other 807th’s medics so he could repay a twenty-five-dollar loan to Voigt, the 807th flight surgeon at Bari; and Rutkowski had learned early that morning that Stakeman, their chief nurse, had accidentally added her to the roster for the day. Rutkowski brought the number of nurses on board to thirteen instead of the twelve McKnight had requested. Since she had already gotten up early, however, she decided to go and help the others.
    With the differences in rank and having completed most of their training separately, the nurses and medics exchanged polite but friendly hellos as they settled into their seats and buckled their belts for the roughly two-hour flight to Bari. Flight surgeon Simpson, who had come with the nurses that morning, had also boarded the plane to get an update on the weather, and the pilots came into the cabin to speak with him. Checking the weather along and adjacent to the planned line of flight was as critical a task for all pilots before takeoff as checking the fuel supply. Thrasher told Simpson the weather reports were favorable enough to fly, with scattered showers but no mention of thunderstorms. Bari was open and Grottaglie, currently closed, was expected to open. Satisfied, Simpson took his leave, and the pilots returned to the cockpit.
    Crew chief Shumway secured the passenger door as the pilots took their seats in the cockpit, and Lebo settled into his separate radio compartment behind the cockpit. Around eight thirty a.m., Thrasher received clearance and pushed the throttles forward, bringing the plane’s two engines to life. The passengers sat back in their seats and listened to the familiar roar of the engines as the C-53D took to the sky. During the climb, they could see the island’s rolling hills pass below them as they edged northeast toward the toe of Italy. The plane reached its initial cruising altitude quickly, and within fifteen minutes the coast of Calabria in southern Italy was in their sight.
    Most of the nurses and medics had already traveled on a handful of evacuation flights, and they quickly relaxed. Some paged through magazines or books, while others talked or tried to catch a few extra minutes of rest. Watson read a book and looked forward to the dinner she and other nurses traveling to Bari planned to have with some of the men from a B-25 squadron. During her previous stays at Bari, they had spent the evenings with them dancing or playing poker in a small room where a single record with “Tuxedo Junction” on one side and “A String of Pearls” on the other was played over and over. She’d run into a few of the men from the squadron in Catania that morning and had wanted to accompany them on their flight, but had been denied, since the 807th had an entire plane designated for their use that day.
    In the short time it took the plane to reach the Italian peninsula, ominous clouds had formed in the path ahead. The pilots continued on, hoping the weather would improve, but as time passed and conditions grew worse, they became even more concerned. The nurses and