The sad part of the internet is the ease with which one man can villify
another.

62 combat missions and shoot down are not done by a coward. You are
entitled
to your opinion, but it is only that.

I fail to see your experience, as valuable as it might be, allows you to
judge
other men.

Telling the history is wonderful and I thank you for those contributions. I,
for one,
can do without the pompous judgments.

Thanks.
"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
THE PILOT WHO WOULDN'T FLY

I am only telling you this story because he passed away two years ago. I
won't
reveal his identity. Let's call him Captain Johnson.
Captain Johnson's plane was badly hit over the target. He and his crew
bailed
out. But Johnson never liked to keep his chute harness buckled tight. It
gave
him cramps. So he wore it loose. On this occasion, as he bailed out he
slipped
out of the harness and it tangled around his foot. That meant that he
dangled
head down in his chute as he came to earth. He was badly shook up on
landing
and hospitalized with severe cuts and bruises and a good deal of shock.
After
he recovered he was returned to duty. At that time we needed 65 missions
to go
home. He had 62, Only three more to go. But he refused to ever fly again.
This
was serious business with a war on. He was sent to London and a staff of
psychiatrists worked on him, but he wouldn't fly. Then they said if he
flew as
an observer on the lead aircraft he could get 1½ missions credit for each
mission, He could fly two and get credit for three, and go home. He still
refused to fly. What was to be done? You can't really court marshal a man
with
62 missions for cowardice in face of the enemy. But he still wouldn't fly.
But
everyone else in the 344th damn well had to fly. Feelings were running
high.
The talk around the group was, "If I have to fly, then he has to fly. No
free
lunch. Her had a bad bailout? Too frigging bad. We all have our
troubles." My
pilot Paul Shorts said, "he was weak". When his name was brought up, the
universal response was disgust. Then one day he was gone. Fast forward 15
years
to a reunion of the 344th Bomb Group. Who should walk in but our old
friend
Captain Johnson. No one spoke to him. Many just turned their backs on him.
I
felt sorry for him. But while we were risking our necks over Germany and
losing
good men, he was curled up and whining under a blanket. He flew with us,
but
after that not a single man in the 344th considered him to be one of us.

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