From: artkramr@a

That small lingering doubt always wll remain since the pilot is
responsible for his crew.

Can't get away from that. When I heard the story of Bush 41 surviving while
his crew perished I experienced a mental "Hmmm," but never went beyond that,
not knowing the details. I caught the author of "Flyboys" on C-Span recently
and listened to his presentation, as a result of which I ordered through our
local library the book, which hasn't come in yet. I hope it will clear up
doubts about what happened with Bush, as well as explain Japanese actions. The
author seems to have spent as much time looking at Japanese motives from the
Japanese perspective as looking at the American side--something that's pretty
rare.
But I'm willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt. War is full of queer
turns of fate. I'm reminded of the story of Lee McAllister, pilot of a B-25
shot down while on a mission to knock out a bridge over the Adige in the
Lagarina Valley. He was the last man out. He kept the plane on an even keel as
its load of WP (for dumping on the flak guns surrounding the bridge) burned so
that everyone could get out. Then he didn't have the easiest time getting out
himself. As a result, while the rest of his crew landed close together and
were quickly rounded up by the Germans and herded into PoW camps where they
survived the war, he came down some distance away and was rescued by Italian
partisans. Lucky him, right? Except that after a few desperate weeks on the
run, the Germans caught him. The gestapo tortured him for days to force him to
tell details of the partisan operation. He defied them, revealing nothing. So
they put a pistol to the back of his head, shot him and dumped his body along a
roadside. Details of his fate only emerged years after the war. He was just a
kid from Salem, Ore. who had a rotten run of luck. One of so very many.


Chris Mark