We enlisted men felt that we should have an enlisted club there on base, so we took over a vacant building across from our barracks and proceeded to make it into our club. Someone found a brewery where kegs of beer could be purchaced. Another found (or liberated) a parachute which was used to form an elegant ceiling. We got some tables and chairs from somewhere and finally we needed to give the club a meaningful name. Someone suggested that we name It the Gladiator Club. That passed muster, after all, we had been fighters to the death and had been victorious. I was detailed to design some murals or figures that would place the gladiator as a member of a B26 crew in the mid 40's. I proposed a cartoon like fellow as a Roman centurion with some wings strapped on his arms. He was Involved with several things that B-26 crew members could relate to such as First Flight, Power Off Landing etc. There were several illustrations used in "our club room". Some one found some colored lights and we thought that the place looked very special.

We started to recieve replacements from the states who were raw recruits or draftees. There was at that time a great deal of fancy Psychological talk and analysis as to the mental state of the combat veteran. Warnings were being issued that we were unstable and likely to flip out over the slightest provacation if the wrong words were used or under certain conditions. We were combat veterans and we didn't believe all that garbage. We all agreed that we were not unbalanced in any way form or fashion. We plotted that the next Saturday night when the club would be in session, we would all appear with full class ~A" uniforms, complete with every ribbon that we had earned, medals, wings, and battle stars. As these new replacements were to come into the club (and we made certain that each of them were notified that the c - -~was~en-~to-1herr~,-each of us annunstable combat veteran. were to latch onto a recruit and tell them horrible combat war stories and even make up some to create color to the limit. If they tried to move away from us, we were to move to block their passage or follow them continuing with our gruesome tales. Sure enough, we held them spellbound. They were afraid to do anything, fearing that they might set us off. Finally I let my "captive~ go and he avoided me the rest of the evening and on every encounter thereafter. We never revealed to any of them that they had been the subject of one giant hoax. I suppose it was an initiation ceremony. We thought that the prank was great sport and a thumb in the eye of the intellectuals.

W78-80 P.80