Core Values & The Metal Highway

MY GRANDFATHER, VALUES, AND SURVIVING WWII FLIGHTS OVER “THE HUMP”

During the summer of 1942, my paternal grandfather, George Harvey, was inducted into the U.S. Army where he was assigned to the United States Army Air Forces. (At that time the U.S. Air Force had yet to become a separate military branch and was under the control of the Army). After completing basic and secondary training, George was sent to the radio operator school in Madison, Wisconsin. By early 1943, found himself stationed at A.P.O. #47 in Sookerating, India.

Northern India was a strategically critical operational center during the Second World War and served as home of the U.S. Army Air Force Ferrying Command, later known as Air Transport Command (ATC). The ATC’s mission was straightforward: Keep Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s forces in China supplied with all manner of matériel so that he and his army could continue taking the fight to their Japanese occupiers.

The ATC ran the first-ever strategic airlift, and their route across the Himalayan Mountains was known by flight crews assigned to that seemingly never-ending and dangerous mission as “The Hump.” It was also known as “The Metal Highway.”

By the end of 1943, 84,000 military personnel supported the operation, and a supply flight landed in China every two minutes. The human cost was high, though, with the survival rate for the flight crews one of the worst ever. Yet week in and week out, my grandfather and several other thousand other airmen suited up for a trip that might very well be one-way only.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PURPOSE AND PERSONAL VALUES

Throughout my life, I’ve often reflected on what my grandfather’s existence was like during his time flying The Hump and living in what he and other folks referred to as the “Big Sweat.” What would it be like to be told that you must go live in a foreign land to perform an extremely dangerous job? Oh, and by the way, your assignment will be open-ended—Uncle Sam will tell you when you can go home.

I have some limited insight into my grandfather’s war experience from our conversations and the letters in our family archive. He was an extremely kind and gentle man who understood what he valued and why. In essence, he understood his values.

George’s understanding of what mattered carried him through his life abroad and back home. His values enabled him to see himself as part of a larger purpose-driven mission, accept his role in the larger struggle, and assume the risk inherent with that mission.

Make no mistake, though. His understanding and acceptance of the larger purpose and mission were only made possible by his personal values. Others that didn’t possess that level of understanding had a far different experience at A.P.O. #457 in Assam, India.

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