Great stuff, Dave - bring it on! It appears that many of us here would enjoy living vicariously through your Dad! :super:
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Great stuff, Dave - bring it on! It appears that many of us here would enjoy living vicariously through your Dad! :super:
Edit:
This is in reply to an earlier post, but my thumbs got in the way:
Quote:
Originally Posted by trekvana
"Looking Back on Those Great Days" starting on page 413.
"American Airmen in Buchenwald," starting on page 287. A rare, little-known dark tale, he did more than enough research to document it. There are other books/research on the subject.
"A Jug Jock's Story" starting on page 437 was written by a squadron mate.
Again, I appreciate the interest, but recognize that this forum has a different focus, and I do NOT want to "ruffle any feathers" as it were by going off-tangent............
Belly landing, ouch.
His first choice was to bail out, but the control surfaces were so shot up that when he let go of the stick, the plane went in to a steep climb and pinned him to the seat. He had to brace the stick against his knees just to keep it level. The "official" bail out protocol was, I believe, to unsnap the seat harnesses, open the canopy, turn the plane upside down and simply fall out of the seat. Not an option in this case.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimF4M1s
The real **sser is that dad's plane was being serviced between sorties to Bastogne, so he flew the squadron commander's brand-new plane on it's first (and last) combat mission............in his befuddlement after the landing, in the aircraft log, he checked the plane off as "okay."