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THE RETURN OF A RATIONALIST
JOHN DOHM
PoR several months in 1942 I was based at an Air Transport Command field on the coast of central Africa. At that point in the war it was not yet fashionable to be concerned about morale, and we were left to our own devices for entertainment between flight schedules. In the after¬ noons we went swimming off the marvellous beaches along the coast, where the breakers rolled in from a quarter-mile out to sea, and we lay in the sun and ate fresh pineapples which cost a cent a piece. Near sunset three trucks from the base came down to the beach to pick us up in time for the evening meal of canned corn and Spam.
There were motion pictures after dark at the outdoor theatre which the four local members of Special Services built and staffed. I regret to say that we did not as a rule receive very moving samples of Hollywood’s sorcery but, the jungle being what it is, we had little choice in our noc¬ turnal diversion and there were ordinarily two or three hundred men standing around on the hummocks waiting for the gates to open. This was a unique little theater, incidentally, in that it boasted a colony of fascinated but inflammable African moths who used to flit around in the light from the projector, throwing great bat1 ike shadows on the screen, until they burst into flames and crashed. Under the seats there were also present various species of mosquitoes, snakes, rodents, and other delight¬ ful fauna.
On one particular night a friend and I made our usual pilgrimage
JOHN DOHM, a newspaper reporter before the war, flew with the Air Transport Command, and b now back in Hollywood, freelancing and working on screen originals.
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