News Article

Daily Town Talk, Alexandria, La.                        Friday, April 21, 1944

TEXAS TRIO SAGA RUNS ALONGSIDE THREE MUSKETEER

    Most reasonable facsimile of the Three Musketeers at the Alexandria, La. Army Air Field are three fightin' Texas air heroes who started pilot training, graduated, went into combat, flew fifty missions, came back to the United States, and are now stationed at the same air field -- together. Also all three are now captains.

   The saga of the three Texans started at Hemet field, California, November 1, 1940, where Otis Allison, Warren; Will S. Arnett, Madisonville, and Claude H. Bridges, Wichita Falls, started flight training together for the army air forces.

    After their training, which took them to various parts of California, New Mexico, and the east coast, the three Texans flew to England, where they served with one of the first two heavy bombardment groups of the Eighth Air Force.

    In England, the Allison, Arnett, and Bridges trio made eight raids on various parts of Holland and France. Then came the North African invasion, and after airdromes had been acquired by land troops the three Texans were assigned to the Twelfth air force in Africa.    Here the sons of the Lone Star state made forty-five missions on Bizerte, Tunis, Sfax, Sardinia, Sicily, and Italy. They were in on the first raid over Italy, the bombing of Naples, April 1843. All three came back without a scratch.

    Being pilots, Allison, Arnett, and Bridges, flew their own Flying Fortresses, but occasionally two of them paired up as pilot and co-pilot. But whenever one went up the other two went up also. They were members of the same squadron. Always all three were on the same raid.

    "We had a lot of Texans over there with us," said Capt. Bridges. "In fact, it seemed that most of the boys in our squadron were from Texas."

    Capt. Bridges commented that some Englishmen and North Africans have strange ideas about Americans.

    "Because we came from Texas, they figured us to be cowboys," said Capt. Bridges, "There was one Arab kid who knew some English. He kept asking us about Tom Mix."

    All three, Allison, Arnett, and Bridges, are serving as instructor-pilots at the Alexandria Army Air Field, which gives Flying Fortress combat crews operational training for overseas duty.