John P. Burns

(September 22, 1917 — April 13, 1942). Lieutenant, serving in the 21st Pursuit Squadron, USAFFE.

January 31, 1942

Not much doing. Relieved Golden at 71st Div. C.P. in evening. 2d. Lt. Leo B. Golden, Jr. was one of the 21st’s pilots, a 41-C

February 1, 1942

Sunday. Quiet day. Know a little more of what goes on here. Busy night, Japs tried a landing, but accomplished little. Art. And Mg. fire

February 2, 1942

Quiet day, mostly spent reorganizing positions. Art. Fire most of day. Quiet night.

February 3, 1942

Scouts mopping up on Agl. Pt. Rumored that Japs broke through our line, no confirmation. Sqd’n put on alert Dyess received new orders this day

February 4, 1942

Sqd. here at daylight. Sent in to help mop up Agl. Pt. Didn’t finish. Lt. J.E. May killed, also several enlisted men. 2d Lt. Jimmy

February 5, 1942

Agl. Pt. still going. All fronts doing good. Day quiet. By noon, all platoons of riflemen advancing behind the tanks had pushed the Japanese back

February 6, 1942

Day quiet. Little air activity lately. Sqd. to stay on Agl.Pt. for a while. A couple of inter island boats have come in recently. It

February 7, 1942

Quiet day. Brought in several prisoners today, one spoke English. Small men. Think I’d know one if I saw him loose. Attempted landing, few got

February 8, 1942

Sunday. Sqd. returned to camp at night. Quite a bit of air activity today. At the beach, two whaleboats of men of the 21st under

February 9, 1942

Enemy attempted landing last night, no luck. A lot of them floating around in water today. Cleaned it up. Quiet day and night. The 21st

February 10, 1942

Went back to camp for a while today. Most of officers at flying field now, wish I was there. Quiet day. Lost quite a few

February 11, 1942

Day quiet. Learned in the evening that Sqd’n is moving to a field, sure is good. Men will now be doing something they are trained

February 12, 1942

Easy day. Waiting for orders to go back to Sqd’n. Have been away much too long. Benton treated us to quite a bull session, he

February 13, 1942

Fri. the 13th. Left the 71st’s C.P. in morning, returned to Sqd’n at field. Nice place, much better than sweating out alerts as we have

February 14, 1942

Spent day clearing place for and setting up a tent, rough work. Like the set up here more and more. Still sweating out a convoy

February 15, 1942

Sunday. The day I figured help would get here. But no soap. Fixed the tent up today. The A.C. can be thankful for Gen. George,

February 16, 1942

Starting 11th week of this mess. They did some flying today so the field was bombed after supper. No damage. Singapore gone now. British up

February 17, 1942

Bombed the field again this morning. Dropped a lot of bombs but no damage. Rest of day quiet. Had tooth filled today.

February 18, 1942

Not much doing today. Climate is getting me or insufficient food and improper diet is doing it. Getting awful lazy and tire out quickly. Everyone

February 19, 1942

Looked over another field today. Had tooth refilled, permanent this time. Not much traffic on roads now, gasoline ration keeps them home.

February 20, 1942

Went to finance dept. today to draw a little money, first I’ve gotten since early in Dec. Won at poker in evening enough to more

February 21, 1942

Enlisted men put on show tonight, pretty good, should have them more often, good for morale. Shame that musical talent that some of the men

February 22, 1942

Sunday. Quiet day. Learned in evening that I’d been made a First Lt. effective the 20th of Feb. Good news, more pay and more rank,

February 23, 1942

Started to brush up on Code today. Sworn in as 1st Lt. effective Feb. 21. Must write to mother and have her buy some bonds

February 24, 1942

Have another allotment now. They are as follows: $125.00 to the Bank of America at Hamilton Fld., $8.10 insurance and $33.57 to mother. That is

February 25, 1942

Not much doing today. The orders making me 1st Lt. came from HQ USAFFE, Fort Mills, P.I. and are Special Orders No. 48, Par. 2.

February 26, 1942

Usual thing around camp today. Every one wants candy mighty bad, also liquor, but not near as much as candy. Enlisted men have no cigarettes.

February 27, 1942

Flew a couple hours in evening. Recon to Subic Bay and Lingayen Gulf, not bad and I feel a lot better about the whole thing.

February 28, 1942

A year ago today I reported in to Hamilton Field. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. Miss the good old

March 1, 1942

Sunday. Went to A.F. Hq. to watch them plot an interception problem. A good set up and a good basis to work on when we