No. 7 
			AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. 
	A greatly added burden was also placed upon Vic D'Aloia and his 
maintence men since they went on longer hours as a regular thing be- 
sides being continually caught With a "little more work" to be done 
each time quitting time arrived. Also many engine changes became due 
and had to be handled in the field. 

	I wish I could properly express my appreciation of their splendid 
work, but since my words are inadequate, I will borrow the Air Corps 
slogan "They do the difficult jobs at once - The impossible takes a 
little longer." If ever a group of men earned such praise it was Project 
7-A maintenance force. 

	As mentioned earlier steps were taken to obtain priorities for the 
homeward travel of our personnel. These were received, but at about 
the same it was decided that our personnel would return six of 
the projects C-87's to the States which solved all transportation 
problems. 

	This news was all that was needed to put everyone in high spirits 
and make them determined to fly enough schedules to leave a record of 
work done that would be a credit to the group. 

	All was going well along these lines when, on the morning of 
November 19, we received a radiogram which stated "Captain Hunt and 
crew jumped out at 21:50 z position unknown". This bad news was 
corrected later by another radiogram saying all were safe, then later 
again another message confirmed the first radiogram. The following cay 
we ascertained that four crew members were located but Captain 
Hunt and the plane were still missing. After 48 hours of suspense, 
Chinese people brought word out of the mountains that the plane was 
found with one body in crash. The body was "Toby Hunt's"- one of the 
most respected and loved members of the group. We were allowed to 
transport the body from China to India and on November 23, twenty-five 
of our boys flew to Chabua and burried "Toby" beside Charleton's crew. 

	At this stage we had lost six men, which is a fairly high price 
for a small force to pay during 3 1/2 months of operation. 

	Others will feel the urge and should write a complete story of 
Project 7-A. They will bring but the human angles, how men re-act when 
the going is hard - how a letter from home, or the lack of it can make 
or break a man under such conditions. How the leadership of a few can 
pull a group through stages that might otherwise endanger a whole 
project - How a spontaneous laugh and a sense of humor can be worth 
more than anything money can buy and how some simple addition of 
food to a menu can be a subject of enthusiastic discussion by men who 
would raise hell if the steak were not cooked to a turn in N. Y. 

	The writers will also want to record how Captain Hunt, flying on 
instruments 20,000 feet over the "hump" found that he could not hold 
altitude because of ice. How it became necessary for the crew members 
to go back into the cabin - without oxygen at 20,000 feet, and first 
get the cargo door loose and let it fall away and then wrestle full drums 
of gas from the cabin to the door and throw them out. They will add 

 No. 8 ( next )