The armor plate behind
the seat was only a foot wide and the bullets were hitting the
instruments about twenty inches apart. I'll never know how my arms
kept from being hit.
The cockpit filled with flames and I knew the gas, tank behind the
seat had been hit and was burning. I just had time to pull the canopy
release and struggled to kick myself out as fast as I could. My oxygen
mask and earphones were still fastened to the plane and these together
with the force of the wind made it difficult to get out. I was lucky
not to be hit by the tail section of the plane. Both of my ears were
burned and the silk scarf around my neck was nearly half burned, but
the wind extinguished that. I was 23,000 feet up which about four
mi1es and did what I was not supposed to do I pulled the ripcord to
open my chute. Due to the panic from the fire I suppose I wasn't
thinking too clearly. The farther you fall before you open the
parachute, the less chance the enemy has of seeing you and the better
your chance for escape. Also some of our pilots had been shot by enemy
planes while coming down in their chutes. I was headed down when my
chute opened and Jerked me around into a sitting position which later
caused all my back problems. My heart went to my throat when I looked
up and saw three panels of the parachute were missing. I realized now
that they are made that way to release some of the air underneath to
make them more stable.
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