Dalene E. Bailey: Air Force Bombing

Dalene E. Bailey was an Air Force pilot during World War II. During the war he helped evacuate British soldiers in Burma after it was being captured by Japanese. Col. Bailey also made several bombing runs in B-25’s. He is a widely decorated soldier and has been in skirmishes with Japanese Zeros, and met headhunters. When Bailey was young, he lived in Idaho with his parents, Paul and Lala Bailey. They did not fancy the idea of Dalene going to college because they did not want him to go away. He married his love Patricia and went to college for two years before running out of money. To pay for college he borrowed from his family and then paid them back during the summer, but this eventually gave way to money issues. Following that, he decided to join the National Guard in 1934. Next he served in the National Guard for a year until in 1935, went to flight school to fly as a cadet for a year before becoming an officer. Unfortunately, the pay was only $90 a month.

None of the planes were available, so he went to a pilot friend and stole a bomber plane. They took the baby over and then came back to return the plane, but, after doing so, they were threatened with disciplinary action. The friend got mad and said he would quit if the Army would not loan a plane to save a life. They never received punishment. Unfortunately, the baby was safe at the hospital, but it did not have access to a mother’s milk. Prepared milk would not work for a baby born at seven months. Bailey decided to schedule a plane to take milk over to the baby every day. This run became known as the “Milk Run” and was talked about in the book “One Damn Thing After Another”. Bailey made sure that the next baby was born in Boise, Idaho for a safer experience. On the other hand being a parent was not the only issue that Bailey ran