The morning sun brought clear skies to the western Aleutians on June 11, 1943. An all out air offensive was launched against the occupying Japanese forces entrenched on the Island of KISKA. B-24 and B-25 bombers from ADAK and AMCHITKA, and P-38 and P-40 fighters from AMCHITKA were sortied to soften up the Japanese positions in preparation for an amphibious assault scheduled for mid August, 1943.

Captain Frank Friedman, Army Air Cor. SN 0726634, flying a P-38 G-15LO, AF SN 43-2229, led the last flight of four P38's from AMCHITKA that morning, with Jim Duffy on his wing, Glen Martin as element leader, and John Larson "tail end Charlie". Each P-38 was carrying two 500 lb. bombs on the belly pylons and a full load of 50 caliber and 20mm cannon ammo.

Arriving over KISKA, the group bombed and strafed the dug in Japanese, hitting any target of opportunity. With most of their ammo expended, the aircraft formed up and headed for AMCHITKA, 85 miles to the southeast, to re-arm and return for round two. As they approached AMCHITKA from the north at 10,000 feet, the weather was crystal clear but looking south, they could see fog forming over the islands south end. The traffic controller advised the arriving aircraft that the field was beginning to fog in and they had better hurry.

Arriving overhead, the four returning P-38’s found the field socked in. Waiting for an improvement in the weather, they flew overhead for half an hour. With no improvement, Frank led them east towards an alternate airport only to find similar conditions.

They returned to AMCHITKA to find the field still obscured by the low lying fog and orbited overhead yet another half-hour. Finally, they were advised by the controller to "head east". A B-24 was in the area, it would provide them with navigation and lead them towards ADAK. A fifth P-38, a "PHOTO JOE" camera equiped airplane joined them, they formed up on the B-24 and departed.

After what seemed an eternity, flying at the lumbering pace of the B-24, they were advised that ADAK was just north under the bumps in the clouds. The ceiling and visibility was very low. There were no reported breaks in the overcast. Friedman, his fuel gauges reading empty for a short while, elected to break off and see if he could find a hole. He gave his wingman Duffy the choice of staying with the B-24 or following him. Duffy followed him down.

Martin, Larson, and "Photo Joe" stayed with the B-24 and continued east towards ATKA, which was 90 miles away and reporting better weather conditions. A couple of minutes after passing ADAK, Martin radioed he was too low on fuel to reach ATKA and turned back towards ADAK. He gave his wingman Larson the choice of staying with the B-24 or following. Larson elected to stay with the B-24.

Fifteen minutes later the B-24 radioed that ATKA was just to north of them and the overcast began to break up. Their fuel gauges having stopped moving a long time ago, Larson and "photo Joe" broke off and turned north. They found the airport, the south half of the runway sticking out of a fog bank. They both made successful landings after having been in the air for over four hours. The typical KISKA raid was just at one hour of flying. "When I had taxied off the runway and onto the ramp, shut down my engines, I was shaking so hard I could hardly get out of the cockpit" recalls John Larson. A ground crewman asked if I knew I had a hole in my airplane; I had taken a hit from ground fire and had a three inch hole in the elevator, about 3 inches from a hinge point. I was later informed I had less than 30 gallons of fuel remaining. The last thing heard from Glen Martin was," Overhead ADAK, engines conked out. Landing in the water 3/4 mile north of the runway." A crash boat was dispatched to recover him , but no trace of Martin or his airplane were found. His body was discovered six days later, washed up on the northern shore of Andrews Bay. Glen Martin was laid to rest on ADAK by his fellow airman.

Meanwhile, Friedman and Duffy had found a hole in the overcast, but not at ADAK. They let down through the hole and broke out over an Island to find a fairly decent ceiling and good visibility. Unfortunately they were west of ADAK. Frank, knowing his fuel tanks were about dry, he had to make a decision: fly till it quit and take whatever was in front of him, bail out, or land somewhere while he still had power. He spotted a fresh water lake big enough to put the P-38 in, set up to land and ditched with his wheels up and flaps down. Duffy (flying a D model with smaller engines) made one circle around the area and saw Frank wave at him he was OK as he exited the sinking airplane. Duffy rolled out of his turn and headed east towards ADAK, wondering in his mind if he had enough fuel to make it.

Approaching from the west, the cloud ceiling had lowered almost to the water. After crossing SHAGAK BAY Jim knew the runway was just over a fairly low ridge. Slowing to 90 knots, with the P-38’s flaps down, he climbed into the overcast, cleared the crest of the ridge dropped gear and started down the east side. He broke out of the clouds and the runway appeared just ahead. Jim landed and taxied to the 54^th Fighter Squadron parking area where his engines quit; out of fuel. "I might have made it a another 1/2 mile." said Jim. He told the SEA AIR RESCUE what happened to Frank and a PBY was dispatched to rescue.

Frank, swimming away from the sinking airplane knew he would not make the distant shore, the water was terribly cold. Luckily, a small rock island lay between him and the shore. Reaching the island, he climbed out. In an effort to keep warm he stripped off his clothes, wrung them out, then put them back on. After about an hour and a half the PBY passed overhead. The lake, being too small to land the PBY, forced the crew to land just offshore in the ocean. The rescue crew reached the island by raft. The raft was portaged 3/8 of a mile overland to the lake and then rowed out to the small rock island to rescue Frank. The route was retraced back to the waiting PBY and they all returned to ADAK.