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44 | SignatureMT 44 | SignatureMT McElhenney WELLNESS ADVOCATE ~ Great Falls, MT Mcelhenney @ bresnan.net Dawn M. McElhenney INDEPENDENT WELLNESS ADVOCATE 4108 6th Ave. North ~ Great Falls, MT 406-868-5037 ~ Mcelhenney @ bresnan.net www.mydoterra.com/dawnmcelhenney Theraputic Grade Essemtial Oils Improve Your Health & Wellness "I was all greased up and had to take a rope with a hook on it to pull a seaplane up with a tractor." His story brightens as he points to a photo bulletin board displaying pictures of him next to a B-24 and a B-17. One of five waste hatch gunners on the PBY, a World War II seaplane, he manned the "machine," positioning himself behind a 50 caliber machine gun. ese were the Navy bombers at the time. At the time, if you had an out, the only way to get back to the U.S. was on a PT boat (a Patrol Torpedo armed aack cra used by the U.S. Navy in WWII which was fast and secure with two ma- chine guns on each side.) His off shore Navy duty time was spent on Esperitu Santo New Heberde Island (today, the new republic of Van- uatu) where he was in the B-24 Squad- ron and lived in quonset huts for two years. eir mission was to patrol the air everyday against the "Zeros," the Japanese fighter planes that had big red zeros on sides of plane. "Every Monday night one of the Zeros, ' Wash Machine Charlie' flew by." " We went into the mangrove trees to hide." Later, Ed was stationed for one year on W hidbey Island, Washington where he and his wife, Mary Alice, were married. W hen he came back to Helena, he worked for the Post Office for one year. It just happened that his father- in-law who worked there, got him the job. "I've always had a good job and made money." For two summers, he worked as a fire watch on a lookout in Coeur d'Alene National Forest. He and Mary Alice lived thirty feet up in the tower. ey were the first U.S. couple to do so. Prior to their position, the department hired only single men, but discovered they didn't value and keep the job. "It was the best experience I had," he says referring to the excitement of work- ing thirty feet up in a tower in one big room with a bed and a cook stove. ey always had a snow bank at the foot of the tower to keep things cold. He maintained mountain trails when not on the lookout and encountered the only other residents of the area: bears, deer and elk. Mostly, on the lookout, Ed didn't get many vacations and Mary Alice missed the excitement of traveling. She had a friend whose husband worked for Metro- politan Life Insurance and earned a trip to San Francisco every year. She liked Models of WW11 airplanes Maierle has flown are displayed in his room.