After supper we were ferried around the facility in a truck to attend an open-air movie. I don't remember what the movie was but the personnel there had access to the latest movies; they were, after all, right on the route from the US to North Africa, Europe, and the Far East. We even had a load of Christmas trees for them on board. Too bad we didn't get there until the day after Christmas.

Day Seven: The next hop was to the Firestone Rubber Company plantation in what was then the Belgium Congo. Here we slept in thatched-roof huts. On Ascension Island we slept in a GI 16 ft. square tent. All down the coast of South America we were housed in wooden frame buildings not unlike the barracks on most bases in the states.

Day Eight: From this base we flew to Dakar, French West Africa. This was a fairly short hop. We were on the ground early in the afternoon and most of the crew went into the city to see the sights. I don't know why, I may have had to attend a briefing or something or other, I didn't go along. Apparently, the group, which my crew was with, attended some sort of sexual exhibition while there. Harold Morris, our copilot, was a very religious man, a strong Catholic, and married to a fine young woman. He was completely shocked over the experience. He had never seen anything like it. Neither had I for that matter and still to this day I haven't. From what he told me, two lesbians and an American soldier from our group put on quite a show.

Day Nine: On day nine we flew another short hop from Dakar, French West Africa, to Maraketch, French Morocco. This time I went with the group into the Medina section of the city. We were in the back of an open GI 6 by 6 truck. We wound around through some of the narrowest streets I have ever seen. There were throngs of silent people following us on foot. The women were all veiled and the men just silently followed us. Not one of us wanted to get down from that truck. We hoped the driver wouldn't stop, for we were really afraid of what the mob might do. We were all familiar with Charles Boyers' famous line "Come with me into the Kasbah!" but we didn't want to have anything to do with the native section of Maraketch. When we returned to the base we couldn't wait to take a shower and get cleaned up. We felt filthy after just riding through the section in a truck.

Day Ten: Day ten took us to Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia. The significant thing I remember about this flight was Harold's landing. We had been alternating making the landing at each of the various stops. This time Harold wanted to fly the approach and complete the landing. He did and it was the smoothest landing I have ever witnessed. It is easy to make good landings in tricycle gear airplanes where the center of gravity is forward of the main gear. Here contact of the gear with the surface tends to cause the airplane to rock slightly forward thus spilling any remaining lift.