{"id":590,"date":"2014-12-29T18:33:06","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T00:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aafcollection.info\/comm\/?p=590"},"modified":"2014-12-29T18:35:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T00:35:15","slug":"one-way-ticket-to-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/2014\/12\/29\/one-way-ticket-to-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"One Way Ticket to Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One<\/a>
One Way Ticket to Hell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the things I love about America is our willingness to stand up to threats.\u00a0 Not only to stand up against them, but to respond to them head on.\u00a0 In a class book from Pampa Army Air Field <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> published near the end of 1943, I noticed something.<\/p>\n

“One Way Ticket to Hell<\/strong>” it said, and there was space to write one’s name.\u00a0 “This ticket entitles the above pilot to a one way trip to Hell.\u00a0 Ticket also entitles bearer to stop over enroute at Japan to enjoy the AAF Stag Party on the Roof Garden at Tokyo.”\u00a0 It’s signed, “Here’s lookin’ down your chimney, Tojo.”<\/p>\n

Strange, I thought at first.\u00a0 Then I did a little digging and found a news report from April 22, 1943.<\/p>\n

Japanese propaganda radio broadcasts declared that every American flyer participating in future bombing raids on Japan has a one way ticket to hell.\u00a0 This was taken to imply that captured airmen would be executed, which was the fate of some of Major General Doolittle’s raiders from the previous April. <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The cadet pilots of basic-flight training class 44-E were obviously eager to get their “one way ticket to hell.”\u00a0 Their response was “Wilco–Class 44-E,” meaning “will comply.”\u00a0 This was a bit of humor in one sense, but I imagine, deadly seriousness in the truest sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I love about America is our willingness to stand up to threats.\u00a0 Not only to stand up against them, but to respond to them head on.\u00a0 In a class book from Pampa Army Air Field published near the end of 1943, I noticed something. “One Way Ticket to Hell” it said, … Continue reading “One Way Ticket to Hell”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlighted-item"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":593,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aafcollection.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}