To the Editor:

I read with interest the Best Times articles about the Naval Air Park at Olathe. I once met, under very adverse circumstances, a pilot and a sailor who were stationed at Olathe Naval Air Station.

I was working as an aircraft communicator in 1943 at the Sidney, Neb., emergency landing field when a naval pilot from Olathe Naval Air Station landed on our grassy strip. He glided in, out of gas, and his sailor passenger had just parachuted out of the plane. His first words were, "What state am I in?"

His destination had been Rapid City, S.D. I never found out whether it was pilot error or malfunctioning instruments, but he was a very lost and worried young man. He had told the sailor to get ready to bail, and he immediately jumped. Just then the pilot spotted the light from my emergency field. He had enough altitude to glide in, so he stayed with the plane.

I radioed the Kansas City Air Traffic Control Center and they relayed the message to Olathe Operations that the pilot and plane had landed safely, but we didn't know about the passenger. We notified the sheriffs in surrounding counties, and in a few hours one of them brought him to our door. He had hurt his ankle when he landed, but could see a farm light, so he gathered up his chute and limped a mile or so to the farm. He had to pound awhile before the farmer came to the door and demanded to know who he was and where he had come from in the middle of the night.

The sailor called the Olathe base from the farmhouse and reported that both of them had bailed out and that the plane had probably crashed in the vicinity. They assured him that the pilot and plane were OK and that they were in contact with the Cheyenne County sheriff, who would take him to Sidney to join the pilot.

It took the rest of the midnight shift to get all the messages relayed back and forth, and the rest of the day to get the plane gassed up and ready to head for Rapid City. Ironically the sailor was a parachute rigger. He told me he carefully packed all parachutes, but hadn't known he would have to use one himself!

After all of these years I have forgotten their names, but I'll never forget the surprise when they dropped silently out of the night.

—Elinor Swartz, Roeland Park