"I thought back on my 17 months in Assam—a slow, back-country operation, a war of attrition. Winners were those learned to adapt to long periods of boredom and appreciate the country and its people. Few of us became heroes." (Memoir, page 116)

Charles Deane Evans

Charles Deane Evans, Mitchell Field, New York [4/1942] War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Air Forces/Corps Unit: 121st Army Air Force Base Unit (AAFBU); 51st Fighter Group and 80th Fighter Group, 10th Air Force Service Location: Montgomery, Alabama; Albany, Georgia; China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater Rank: Captain Place of Birth: New York, NY

In 1940 Charles Evans was a college student fascinated with flying, so he signed up for an air cadet program. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Evans was, in one day, drummed out of the air cadets and given a commission in the Army Air Corps. He flew a P-40 in a Pursuit Group that monitored the skies over New England, serving with legendary pilot Philip Cochran, the model for Milton Caniff's comic strip character Flip Corkin. Like Cochran, Evans would serve in the China-Burma-India Theater, piloting a P-40 on bombing and strafing missions over Burma. After 17 months and 59 missions, he was given the choice of staying longer with a promotion or returning home. He chose the latter, looking forward to a real honeymoon with his wife, to whom he'd been married only four months when he shipped out.