Had he ditched they may have all come out alive.

Certainly possible - the author goes to great pains to establish that Bush
himself still harbors doubt as to whether he did the right thing. He had an
aircraft that was barely controllable and any water landing would have been a
crash, not a ditch, and few Avenger crewmen survived in either event. Bush
states that he flew it in a manner that would slip the tail enough to the side
that his crew could get the escape door open without having to fight the
slipstream for as long as he safely could - he got no return call from the crew
and the aircraft was failing, so he left it. I don't know what else he could
have done, but at least one of his guys parachuted out, only to die in his
attempt. Having evaluated Bush's statements with a rather jaundiced crewman's
perspective, I'd say that Bush probably did all he could under that particular
set of circumstances. The fact that his decision still tortures him a lifetime
later leads me to believe he will never be comfortable with his choices that
day, but I think he was simply lucky to be alive.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR Aircrew

"Got anything on your radar, SENSO?"
"Nothing but my forehead, sir."