I'll never forget the day we arrived at the 305th Bombardment Group, 366 Bomb Squadron. This
was about the first of April 1944. The six enlisted men on our crew were assigned to live in a Nissen hut along with another crew. Entering the barracks, Gene Snodgrass noticed a brand new pair of GI Shoes
on the floor. When he reached down to pick up one of the shoes, one of the other crewmembers said, "you can have them. He's dead." Gene dropped the shoe where he found it.
We had just
finished unpacking when one of the other crewmembers immediately started looking through Gene's uniforms hanging on the r
ack by his bed, as they appeared to be about his size. Gene snapped, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" The other crewmembe r replied, "Oh, I'm just
seeing what you have, I need. You guys won't last long. The crew you're replacing was shot down on their fifth mission."
The veteran crew sharing our barracks had already flown seventeen or eighteen missions. They were now looking forward to a "well earned" furlough to London, due soon.
Our first objective upon arriving at our new home was to visit the neighboring village of Chelveston. Gene Snodgrass, Jim 
Ransbottom and myself borrowed bicycles from the other crew and after obtaining passes peddled to Chelveston
that evening. Upon arriving, we were greeted by the American M.P.s. We hadn't found the local "Pub" yet and we were sober. Our greetings were a citation for not having taillights
on our bicycles. Back to the base we peddled without seeing Chelveston and the local "pub".
The next day we had to report to some officer's office where we were reprimanded severely,
more that I thought the offense deserved. The officer was going to confiscate our bicycles had they belonged to us. I never saw Chelveston again during my short stay at the 305th.
During this week I recall hearing stories of practical jokes the Bombardiers were playing in each other's barracks. The favorite prank was dropping flares down the barracks smoke stack and
watching the occupants evacuate fast when the flares began popping out of the coke burning stove. One Bombardier dropped a CO2 bottle down the smokestack. This Bombardier apparently didn't
realize what was going to happen as the stove exploded. Luckily no one was injured. This stopped practical jokes for a while.
