Corps IX
Under Fire
Chapter One
Aboard Trans-Global Airways Flight 907
North Latitude 36 Degrees 59 Minutes, East Longitude 143 Degrees 77 Minutes
(Above the Pacific Ocean, near Japan)
1100 1 June 1950
"This is the First Officer speaking," the copilot of Trans-Global Airways Flight 907 said into the public address
system microphone. "We are about to begin our descent into Tokyo's Haneda Airport, and have been advised it may get a
little bumpy at lower altitudes. So please take your seats and fasten your seat belts, and very shortly we'll have you
on the ground."
Trans-Global Flight 907 was a triple-tailed, five-months-old Lockheed L-1049 Constellation, christened Los Angeles.
The navigator, who wore pilot's wings, and who would move up to a copilot's seat when TGA accepted-next week, he
hoped-what would be the eighteenth Constellation in the TGA fleet, did some calculations at his desk, then stood up and
murmured, "Excuse me, sir," to the man in the jump seat.
The man in the jump seat (a fold-out seat between and immediately behind the pilot's and co-pilot's seats) looked over
his shoul ... read full excerpt from Under Fire ebook
