“It was a time for me of urgent effort, sometimes
terror, at other times utter boredom, and occasionally unmatched
exhilaration.” (Memoir, page 3)
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. |