Jump to the Land of God

On November 30, 1943, First Lieutenant Robert E. Crozier, Waco, Texas, pilot of a giant cargo plane, left the runway at Kunming, China, bound for Jorhat, India. With him were his copilot, Flight Officer Harold J. McCallum, Quincy, Massachusetts; Corporal Kenneth B. Spencer, Rockville Center, L.I., New York, radio operator; Sergeant William Parram, Tulsa, Oklahoma, crew chief; and Private First Class John Huffman, Straughn, Indiana, assistant engineer. Caught in a mighty Himalayan storm, with their radio dead, the airmen strayed into Tibet and became the first to fly over the Holy City of Lhasa. With their fuel gone, they jumped into the black of night.The downed airmen found themselves in a land and among a people that they could not have conceived of in their wildest fancy. They saw stones that prayed, met people who showed their respect by sticking out their tongues at them, learned to eat uncommon foods prepared in curious ways, and to get used to butter in their tea. They finally walked out to India.