The planes were the best available at the time. They had blowers (superchargers) that were not supposed to be engaged below 10,000 feet. The blowers were wired open so that we could get the maximum power out of an aircraft on takeoff. That meant that an engine would last twenty-five to fifty hours before it blew up and had to be replaced. An engineering officer told me that the pressure on the cylinder walls was equivalent to sixty inches of mercury - a standing sixty inch column of mercury at sea level. The F4F didn't have electric fuel pumps. When you got up to 10,000 feet, you maintained fuel pressure with a pistol grip hand pump. Eight to ten seconds after you stopped pumping, the damned engine would quit. We would secure the throttle setting, then to maintain fuel pressure in the engine in order to get to altitude, we would fly with our left hand and pump with our right.

The first planes didn't have any shoulder straps, so if you had to make a water landing, you were guaranteed ten to fifteen stitches on your forehead where it would hit the gunsight. We were so short on gasoline that we had to salvage it out of wrecked aircraft. We would have air raids and the cooks would go up into the hills for two hours. When it was time to eat, we never knew if there would be any food ready, but we really didn't care. I lost twenty-five pounds in five weeks....