- Combine small, cramped spaces, sharp metal corners and desert thermal chop
and you end up with lots of bruises. One in particular, from when my right
forearm met a vertical piece of the upper turret structure, is still barking
at me. I think I nailed both knees and a shin too. Another thing that I
came away with were very sore leg muscles. You spend a great deal of time
trying to stay upright by shifing your balance constantly (think, running on
the beach...)

My wife and I flew aboard the same plane for our 25th anniversary.
Experienced all the same things you did. Same thing with the chop. I
had trouble walking for a week from sore legs. Was weightless numerous
times and sailed head first into a machine gun on it's mount. Got a
nasty (and envious) cut on the forehead with blood running down my
face. I can honestly now say that I was wounded by a machine gun while
on a B-17 mission (no one has to know it was from the "non-business"
end). I captured most of it on tape. Had the camera running almost
constant. Had the good fortune of coming into the pattern (and
alongside) a C-47 on that ride and filmed that also.

Jim in CT