Kids, Crew and Leaders

"TOM!" yelled jack from the belly of the plane.

The crew had been waiting for the go signal for two or three hours, Tom was getting so bored he couldnt remember. Some kind of frucus had erupted between the two gunners at the waist of the plane and some had yelled there was a fight. As was practical in such situations the captain sent his copilot back to check it out. Two kids fighting was not entirely uncommon on base, but absolutely not allowed on the aircraft. Nevermind these guys had 45 caliber hand guns and 50 caliber machine guns within arms reach the the whole lot of them sat under thousands of pounds of highly flamible avgas and about 10 feet from a 1,000lbs of high explosives.

"on the way" hollared back tom with a tone of disgust. For crying out loud they were sitting at the end of the runway ready to takeoff and bomb some target in to the next milenium and these two kids were likely fighting over some girl they met one time or who should clean up the empty brass after the mission.

Tom eased his way down from the cockpit to the small gang way that led through the bomb bay to the waist gunner positions. Tom really didnt like passing through the bomb bay loaded. They wouldnt even find the little pieces if one of the things went off and the thought of it was a bit unsettling.

Tom had to walk leading with one shoulder trying not to catch his harnesses on the supports, his belt on a pole and an assortment of other things. As he approached the area that opened up for the waist gunners he could see Jack with one hand on the scruff on one guys collar and another on the guys. All three men were beat red and one of the fellows took another stab at the other and Jack about yanked his shirt off keeping them apart.

"WHAT THE !" Tom yelled when he saw the brawl in action.

"CAPTAIN THAT (&(^*(! IDIOT WONT TAKE HIS............!" yelled bobby mcelroy. Bobby was a short but stout kid from New Jersey with a short fuse. He was a dang good gunner and Tom knew that well. If a meschermidt got within range of the starboard side 50 Bobby was gonna get a piece of him and probably had more kills to his name then some of the guys flying fighters.

"QUIET!" yelled Tom before Bobby could finish his sentence. The kid shut up immediately. Tom never raised his voice at the crew unless there was imminent danger or he couldnt get someones attention. That was the case this time.

On the other side of the fight was 'Geek' Greg slayton. Geek got his knickname because he was constantly reading the airplane manuals, army field manuals, anything he could get his hands on in hopes he could get promoted. It hadnt worked yet and the kids capabilities probably meant he was best suited behind the 50 call on the port side, but Tom gave him credit for trying. Geek was long anid lanky and couldve reached over and smacked Bobby with not much effort so tom figured he was trying real hard.