· RUEL SK

The Way Back
121
MORE AFTERMATH
Lieutenant Donald Whitefield had been told to clean up and report to Wing
Headquarters that evening for a critique. When the six officers arrived, they were escorted
into a room with a bar: "A white-coated English batman told us this was Jimmy Stewart's
private bar, and we were welcome to all the drinks we wanted. Interestingly enough, the
batman told us that the bar cost Jimmy Stewart more per month than his salary as a
Lieutenant Colonel.
"We were called into a large briefing room, and on the platfonn were two Generals
and some lower ranks.
"After a number of people made various reports, I was asked to tell them where I
thought we bombed. The group navigator had my records and so this shaky little first
lieutenant had to stand in front of all that brass and say that as I remembered, we were
approximately 20 miles beyond the primary of Kassel, four minutes beyond my ETA to
drop. I sat down and felt like I had goofed and would be cleaning the latrines for the rest of
the war.
"Then the general asked the fighter group representative, 'Where were you when you
heard the call for Little Friends?'
"This cocky Major stood and reported that his group was sweeping the deck. All at
once, parts and parachutes were all over the place.
"The General asked, 'What did you do?'
"The Major replied, 'We got the hell out of there! ,
"I think if I had had my .45 I would have shot him!
"At the end of the critique a Lieutenant Colonel came up to me and said, 'Lieutenant,
your charts had you right on the target.' The ship that came back with us was the camera
ship and a break in the clouds allowed a picture of where the bombs had dropped so they
knew my report from memory was accurate.
"The group navigator had left me out there high and dry to make a report when he
could have told me it had checked out to be accurate."
The DEWEY crew