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Oral History Interview with Orland J. ""Bud"" Harris, August 22, 2000
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The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Orland Harris. Harris went to Santa Anna, California for Aviation Cadet training in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He went to primary flying school in Visalia, California and then went to LaeMoore, California for more training. From there he went to replacement training units, flying the P-38, P-322 and P-39. Harris had take civilian pilot training for one year at college before he went into the service. He received his wings at Williams Field in Arizona 3 Nov 1943 and became an officer that day. He went to the South Pacific in a C-54, along wih about 30 other pilots, ending up in Nadzab, New Guinea with the 8th Fighter Group (part of the 5th Air Force). His P-38 missions included targets of opportunity around New Guinea, a cave on Corregidor and straffed ships on the way to Borneo, and the Philippines. Normally they flew cover missions for B-17s and B-24s but on occasion covered B-25s and A-20s. Harris was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) when he was flying out of Mindoro in the Philippines on a night mission (26 Dec 1944) attacking a Japanese task force coming down from the north to Mindoro. On one of his passes at two destroyers, he hit the superstructure on one of the destroyers and had to bail out. While in the water, he had some close calls with the Japanese destroyers he had been straffing but was rescued by a landing craft. Harris and one of his squadron mates were sent to Australia on R&R after their rescue. Harris was at Luke Field when the atomic bomb was dropped. There are two pictures (dated 1944) of Harris in the folder as well as a copy of his DFC.