An Album of Memories by Tom Brokaw

Author:Tom Brokaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781588360052
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

Janet Conklin upon her return home after serving thirty-one months in India.

(Courtesy of Janet Rodgers)

Thank you for a wonderful book about our generation.

Sincerely,

Janet E. Rodgers

A.N.C. N722843

Dear Mr. Brokaw:

I drove the lead vehicle in the first convoy that traversed the Ledo-Burma Road from Ledo, Assam, India, to Kunming, China. My job was to chauffeur the convoy commander, Col. DeWitt T. Mullett. Although Gen. Pick received most of the glory, he actually traveled with the convoy very little. Gen. Pick was ferried in by air on several occasions to meet with the convoy in bivouac. Col. Mullett was the convoy commander and was with us from start to finish.

With rare exception each of the 113 vehicles was towing a trailer or artillery piece. There was also in the convoy one tractor towing an engineer flatbed trailer on which was a light tank. This tank was our only protection other than each man’s rifle. Thank goodness we completed the ordeal without needing either.

When we rolled into Kunming every vehicle was running under its own power except two. One of the wreckers had a deuce-and-a-half (6 × 6 GMC) on the hook, and one motorcycle was hauled in. This was probably the best completion record of all the convoys. The biggest maintenance problem we had was flat tires.

We arrived at the bottom of the Salween Gorge early one morning. It was a very nice day, but the gorge and the suspension bridge we were to cross were still in the shadows of the mountain. There was to be a big picture-taking session by the correspondents, so we had to wait until the light was right for the photographers. Only one vehicle at a time was allowed on the bridge because of the bridge’s capacity. At this point the semi hauling the tank and the tank had to be left behind. Individually they were both too heavy to cross the bridge.

This portion of the Burma Road was probably the most treacherous part of the whole trip. The road mileage from rim to rim was some forty miles but by how the crow flies was only about ten miles. The steepness of the grades and only one vehicle at a time on the swinging bridge all in first gear consumed some sixteen hours of driving that day.

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