Mr. James W. (Jimmy) Mize U.S. Army Serial Number O-789735 C-47 and C-46 Transport Pilot in World War II Mr. Jim W. Mize served in the 433rd Troop Carrier Group (TCG) of the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF), from February 1943 until August 1945. In mid August 1943, the 433rd TCG was ordered from Baer Field, Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Port Moresby, New Guinea. CAPT Jim Mize was pilot in command of a C-47, AAF Airplane No. 42-25831, and Executive Officer of the 68th Troop Carrier Squadron. He departed Fort Wayne with a crew of five other men, and flew to Hamilton Field, San Francisco. From there they flew across the Pacific in 7 to 8 hour legs. Their first stop was Honolulu, Hawaii, and Jim recalled seeing "what was left of Pearl Harbor." They made stops at Christmas Island, Canton Island, Viti Levu in the Fiji Islands, and New Caledonia, before landing at Amberley Field west of Brisbane, Australia. At Brisbane, they oriented, adjusted, and waited for their support troops to arrive by ship. Then they flew across the Coral Sea to their base in Port Moresby, New Guinea, arriving by mid September 1943. Jim said the coral reefs around Australia were beautiful from the air. During his tour, he hauled everything from airborne troops, glider troops, food, ammunition, medical supplies, and liberated prisoners of war. He remembers flying north over New Guinea's Owen Stanley Mountains to support operations at Buna, Lae, and Nadzab. He flew the initial drops on Nadzab, 30 miles inland from Lae on the Markham River. He said that Nadzab was where the airborne gliders were later brought into New Guinea for use in airborne drops. He dropped food and ammunition for the troops fighting near Aitape in July and August 1944. He said, "We had to hug the ground a lot, because the clouds were stuffed with rocks! We dropped medical supplies and 300 pound parachute bags full of food supplies and other goodies. It was tough country. In New Guinea many Japanese troops were surrounded, bypassed, and left to starve. If an aircraft went down near them, it was bad. The Japanese were unmerciful." He recalled that Rabaul, on New Britain, was the main Japanese headquarters in the area at that time. His last airborne drop was a glider drop at Aparri in northern Luzon, in June 1945. He talked about making supply drops to troops who were in thick jungle with kunai grass 10 to 12 feet tall. "The men on the ground would take a white parachute and spread it out in a small clearing in the kunai grass. Then they made radio contact, and we flew to their coordinates, found the drop zone, and flew over at 300 feet. As soon as I saw that white parachute slip under the nose, I hit the green light button, and the sergeant in back pushed the cargo out the door. Then we would circle around and do it again until the drop was complete." He said that their aircraft code names were "Streetcar," "Boxcar," and "Biscuit Bomber." When communicating with ground troops, Jim would call, "This is Biscuit Bomber 831 [last three digits of the aircraft serial number]." He said that code name for weather was "Savanah." "Savanah 1" meant perfect weather, and "Savanah 10" meant the worst. He talked about training with the airborne troops at Fort Bragg, Fort Benning, and Fort Sam Houston. He admired the airborne troops, and wanted to try a parachute jump like them, but pilots were prohibited from jumping. "Any pilot caught trying to jump was court-martialled. They wouldn't even let me do a 'mechanical jump' [a training jump from the 34-foot tower down a cable]." He made C-47 drops on Mindanao until the American invasion at Leyte Gulf in October 1944. He said they departed from Biak Island, and flew northwest to Sansapor in Indonesia. Here they stopped to refuel before flying on to Mindanao. They flew to the west of Davao to avoid the Japanese, circled around in the vicinity of Zamboanga, and made drops in western Mindanao. He didn't say which units he was supporting, but at that time it was probably the Filipino and American guerilla forces under Colonel Fertig. They flew back to Biak via Sansapor. He said, "Mindanao had a heavy rainy season that was about six months long, and it was HOT! And that wasn't all. Typhoons would come in with heavy winds for 7 to 10 days. When that happened, we flew 500 miles away to Hollandia, New Guinea, to wait out the storm." After the airstrip at Tacloban, Leyte was seized by the Americans in October 1944, they changed their route to the Philippines. They departed from Biak Island at 0300 hours, and flew due north to Peleliu Island, where they stopped to rest and refuel. Jim remembers resting under the wing of his plane, and hearing the sounds of gunfire in the hills as the U.S. Marines continued the fight to secure Peleliu. From Peleliu, they flew into the airstrip at Tanauan, just south of Tacloban, Leyte. After making deliveries in the Tacloban area, they made drops on Cebu and on Mindanao. He said the natives on Cebu had leprosy, and not many Americans went there. He described Mindanao as "practically deserted, with a lot of thick jungle." He also said that Mindanao was "a bad Dengue Fever area" because of the kunai grass. After these drops they flew back to Biak via Peleliu. There were many long over-water flights. Jim said that on the Biak-Peleliu-Tacloban run his squadron began flying the Curtis C-46 "Commando." He described the C-46 as an "advanced B-26." It was larger than the C-47, with a "big belly" for cargo. It had two big engines, high wing loading, and a payload of 9 to 10 thousand pounds, almost twice that of a C-47. Jim commented, "When flying the C-47, you could trim it up and fly it with your thumb. Not so with the C-46." After Manila was secured, his squadron was based at Clark Field. He described his flying during this time as "heavy duty," as his group transported injured soldiers and POW survivors. These included "Red Cross Ladies" and Nurses. Many of the liberated POWs weighed only 70 or 80 pounds. The pilots were instructed not to fly above 300 feet as they flew these people from Nichols Field, south of Manila, to the hospital area in Tacloban, Leyte. From there the patients travelled by ship back to the states. Jim shipped out of Subic Bay, Luzon, in July 1945 and spent 31 days "zig-zagging across the ocean" on a Liberty Ship. He couldn't remember the ship's name. During the journey home, he remembers "an armada of ships, tremendous strength, heading the other direction." These were ships that had been released from the European Theater, and were bound for the Pacific Theater to support the invasion of Japan. He said, "We were sitting on board our ship in San Francisco Bay on 9 August 1945, when the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. We had to stay on board a while longer." During his tour, Jim logged more than 3800 hours, most of it over water. He served as Executive Officer of the 68th Troop Carrier Squadron while flying the C-47, from 9 February 1943 until May 1944. He was Commander of the 70th Troop Carrier Squadron while flying the C-46, from May 1944 until August 1945. He admired all the troops he supported, and the Seabees and the engineers who built and maintained the airfields. He said, "I witnessed so many Army, Navy, and Seabees during the war. They were great men. The camps they lived in were just flat earth!" Jim also said, "I cannot say enough about Tom Deas. He is a medical doctor who took care of the troops." Jim Mize was a member of the Air Force Reserve from 1948 until 1965, and attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He coached Track and Field at Louisiana Tech University for 31 years. He was also a football line coach at Louisiana Tech for 24 years, and drove an average of 30,000 miles each year going to away games and meets. Tom Deas tells me that Jimmy is a legend at Louisiana Tech, and his boys love him. Jim told me that "most of the oldtimers are gone," but they still have an annual reunion. The last one was in Seattle in September 2001. They have a group historian, Paul Seaman, and Jim will send a copy of my father's diary to him. Jim also recalled his recent visit to New York City on 22-29 December 2001. He and his grandson visited the aircraft carrier "Intrepid" on the Hudson River. They walked the deck and viewed the mock-ups of aircraft on deck. He said it brought back many memories. He also commented that the New Yorkers he met were very courteous. There was only one disturbing incident, when two cab drivers had a loud argument in traffic. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Jim W. Mize 900 Robert Street Ruston, LA 71270 Telephone (318) 255-0967 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Telephone conversation between Mr. James W. Mize and Paul Webber on 30 January 2002. Some information obtained by documents sent by Mr. Mize, including his PCS orders dated 15 August 1943, ordering the 433rd Troop Carrier Group from Baer Field, Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Port Moresby, New Guinea. Transcribed by Paul M. Webber on 30 January 2002 Reviewed and edited on 26 February 2002, 23 August 2004, 27 April 2006, 29 October 2006 Home Page: http://home.pcisys.net/~pwebber/31_id/rtw.htm