Book excerpt: I asked for action, and I'm really getting it. We had our toughest mission to-date, yesterday. It was a bombing-strafing job on destroyers, and they really threw up the fireworks. It gives you a funny feeling to see all the ack-ack coming and still have to keep on going in. It is a feeling of acute anticipation and mild curiosity-the latter as regards whether it is your turn to get hit. I like combat pretty well. I guess it is a natural desire to like destruction. If you've ever seen six streams of tracers hosing into a target, I think you'd know what I mean. I've flown an awful lot lately (9 hours a day), and hope I can keep it up. However, some replacements came in today, so they will probably ease up a little on the rest of us. I'd rather keep up the steady flying, though. P. S. Guess you've been praying for me quite a bit. At any rate, someone has. Keep it up. There really are no atheists here. Book jacket.