“Sorry, sir. Well, in executing the operation, General MacArthur spared no expense. The transport pilots trained hard for the jump. They practiced a lot, which was one of the keys to the mission’s success. Two days before the assault, the transport pilots did a dummy drop on a similar airstrip in friendly territory.”
“I was aware of that. So you feel that practice drop made a difference?”
“Absolutely, sir. It gave the fly boys a lot of confidence and did wonders for the coordination.”
“OK. Please continue.”
“We did not use pathfinders to guide us into the drop zones because it was daylight when we jumped and the Air Corps thoroughly prepped the DZs with 20 specially configured B-25 gun ships. You know the ones, sir. They’re armed with eight .50 caliber machine guns in the nose, where t
