Tribute to one who got over The Hump

Happy Veterans Day! It’s our day to celebrate being a veteran, and to honor our brethren near and far. One special veteran and member of the “Greatest Generation” is 92-year-old Alvin Ray Schmidt who has a story of service to tell.

Serving from 1942 to 1945, Staff Sgt. Schmidt was on one of the most dangerous and harrowing missions of World War II. Originally enlisted as an airplane mechanic, he was assigned to the Army Air Force as a radio operator in the Air Transport Command. Until late 1943, his group transported airplanes from the United States to Australia, Gradualcanal, and Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, which was the site of the first American offensive in the Pacific Region in November, 1943. The allied victory there cost the lives of 6,400 Japanese, Koreans, and United States Marines. The strategic importance of Tarawa was to eventually launch an invasion of the Marianas, which were necessary to set up forward bases capable of supporting operations across the mid-Pacific.

In late 1943 well into 1944, his group was assigned to the China-Burma-India Theater with the mission to fly gasoline to China from India “over The Hump” to support the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek. The Hump” was a route to China over the Himalayan Mountains from India, which Al said was at an altitude of 10,000 to 12,000 feet. In airspace with possible and expected enemy activity, the airlift began in April 1942 after the Japanese blocked the Burma Road which was used to supply China with supplies and equipment, and continued through August 1945.

His first night in India was traumatic. His emotionally charged telling of that night was about a C-109 on a fuel mission over The Hump that crashed on take-off. He related that the co-pilot on that plane said repeatedly to “get off the brake!” The C-109 is a converted B-24 Liberator and is loaded with about 2,000 gallons of gas. The runways were shorter than required for the heavy aircraft and the planes had to get maximum speed to take off. Confusion of braking and trying to obtain take-off speed caused the plane to crash.

Another mission that was exciting was a night mission over The Hump where he looked out the window and saw a black airplane alongside his C-109. Turns out that it was a P-61. Yeah... I had to look that one up, too. The “Black Widow” was designed for night interception of opposing aircraft, and is a twin engine, dual fuselage “fighter” similar to the Lockheed P-38 “Lightning.” Developed by none other than Jack Northrop, the P-61 is armed with four 20 mm front facing cannons, and four M2 Browning .50 cal machine guns on a remote controlled gun turret. It has a crew of three and was equipped with radar. The P-61 was an escort plane used in both Pacific and European theaters during WW II. Schmidt remembers that there was a daily code required to authenticate radio transmissions. If the proper code was not given, the orders were to be shot down or escorted to a landing strip. Some of the Japanese pilots could speak English very well and were known to give false information to Allied aircraft. He authenticated the code when requested by the Black Widow and resumed normal flying operations.

Coming back from China on his last trip, his plane was hit by lightning and shorted out the radio. They landed at a remote airstrip in India. Another plane was also hit by lightning and also had commo failure. The two radio operators decided to switch radios and the one in Al’s plane worked so both planes took off with his in the lead back to their home base. That trip logged him 652 hours of mission time and he decided not to fly that mission anymore. They were required to attain at least 650 to be reassigned. The India-China ferrying operation was the largest and most extended strategic air bridge (in volume of cargo airlifted) in aviation history until exceeded in 1949 by the Berlin airlift, and logged 1.5 million hours of flying time.

Staff Sgt. Al Schmidt was reassigned to the United States to ferry planes to Hawaii. On one trip the wings iced up on his B-25 and the pilot had to use more fuel to compensate. They made it to Hawaii on fumes. On another trip with a C-54, later known as a DC 6 commercial airliner (remember them?) an engine went out on take-off but the pilot flew the mission on three engines. Whew ... that was intense.

Al Schmidt is a snowbird, spending his summers here in Kilroy Bay and winters in Yuma, AZ. He earned two Air Medals and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his tour of duty. Thanks for your service, my friend. You made a big difference for us here at home, and you have demonstrated the sacrifice that veterans have made to make the United States of America the “Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave.”

Jack Evensizer is a veteran of the U.S. Army and resident of Dalton Gardens.