Subject: Fly Boy ?????
From: nt (Gordon)
Date: 10/22/03 11:54 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

One further comment. When a
crew has to hit the silk, the pilot is not the first to go, he is always the
last to go. Thus the questions.


Agree - and for many years, the question about Bush's crew bothered me a lot.

The book addresses what happened and Bush's 'survivor guilt', but I agree, if
the pilot returns and none of his crew does, its a problem. I know of a
Mosquito Nav that discovered he was in an unpiloted a/c after his chicken****
pilot had bailed out on him after a nearby flak explosion. The Nav
eventually
made it out and walked out of Luftgau 17B some months later. Upon returning
to
the UK for debrief, he was surprised to pass his "pilot" in the hall en route
to the inquest - the pilot saw him and bolted, bleating, "but I thought you
were dead!!" I'd have hunted McCallum down and shot him, personally. LMF my
ass, this guy was a coward down to his cells. Opposite is when another
Mossie
took a terminal hit at 33,000' and the escape hatch jammed. The pilot stayed
in down to 6 grand, waiting on the Nav to escape and only at that point did
he
direct the Nav to follow him out the top hatch (the pilot had to be out of
his
seat for the Nav to use his overhead hatch). In that case, the pilot
perished,
while his Nav hit the ground after two swings in his 'chute.

I do agree - if your crew doesn't make it back, the pilot generally shouldn't
either.

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

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


Anyone with combat experience is familiar with the pilot goes last tradition.
Once you hear that the pilot suivived but the crew was lost a few hundred
thousand aircrew all get their suspicions aroused. It is the normal natural
response for those with combat experience. Only inexperienced wannabees would
look at it any other way.
..

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer