AIR HITCH HIKE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 66, 18 March 1944, Page 5

AIR HITCH HIKE

ROMANTIC "AUSSIE"

Vain Attempt To Reach U.S.A. To Wed American Nurse Rec. 10 a.m. SYDNEY, this day. A 20-year-old Australian soldier attempting an aerial hitch hike to the United States to marry an American nurse got as far as a Pacific island. This is revealed by an Allied officer who has just returned from the island.

"The soldier told us he was on 28 days' leave and planned to use his leave by going to the States and marrying a nurse whom he met in Australia 18 months ago," said the officer. "He talked the pilot into giving him a lift from Australia. He was, in fact, the greatest salesman I have ever met, and soon he had everybody trying to get him to America 'under the lap.

"He raced from one end of the island to the other to catch a plane but some official always got in his way. Ultimately, he told his story to the colonel in charge of a plane, who declined to agree to anything, but remarked that his 'eyesight was not so good.' "The soldier put his bag aboard the colonel's plane, but just as he himself was about to step aboard he was challenged by a second lieutenant —and he was left behind. The soldier did not betray anyone who helped him. He said his mind was blank since leaving Australia. "By this time he was one day absent without leave, so he presented himself to the Australian liaison officer, and told him an 'official' story. He was given a dressing-down and sent back to Australia by plane—two days A.W.L."