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Well got a 50 caliber ammunition can and we filled it with gasoline and after we'd take parts off the old engine to put on the new one we would have to wash them in this gasoline. It was my job to wash these parts and when it was up on the Scaffold there and when you wanted to put on a new part there, he would take it out of the gasoline and he would wrap it up in a shirt and then put it on before the dust would get it all dirty again. It was quite a deal, that was real primitive. Mr. Misenhimer: So, you had to pass them up in your shirt..then what happened? Mr. Ebel: Well, after we put the engine together, they fired it off, it run and they let it run there a little while. So, it looked like everything was fine, so that was the morning of the 16th. We went out there on the runway and they run it up again. We took off from Iwo. We had to fly over the Japanese lines, and as soon as the wheels come up, we had to make a sharp turn to the right. Otherwise, he is going to fly right over the Japanese and we took a few rifle shots but that didn't do any damage. Got over the water and we flew that thing back to Guam. Three days later, were back in the air going back to Truk. Mr. Misenhimer: So, you all went back to Truk? Mr. Ebel:
Well, you know that Truk is a big Japanese base there and the Navy has always said that they knocked things out, but I can assure them that they did not knock that place out. They didn't use it as a harbor no more. It was in our range now. 31.
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Doyle Ebel. Ebel was drafted into the Army Air Forces in March, 1943 and trained at Miami Beach before going to radio operator school in Missouri. He also attended gunnery school before becoming a crewmember on a B-24 and shipping overseas in July 1944. He was assigned to the 26th Bomb Squadron, 11th Bomb Group at Saipan in October. Ebel recalls an emergency landing on Iwo Jima. He flew 37 combat missions before the war ended and returned to the US in November, 1945.
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Ebel, Doyle.Oral History Interview with Doyle Ebel, July 30, 2013,
text,
July 30, 2013;
Fredericksburg, Texas.
(https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1606583/m1/31/:
accessed July 16, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu;
crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.