It may have been statistically impossible, but my uncle and his B-24 crew completed their missions and returned home in 1943. He was in the Ploesti Raid (Operation Tidal Wave), among other dangerous raids. Once he made it back to the US, he never flew in any kind of airplane again for as long as he lived. He died in the late 1990s.
My father was already a pilot in the US Army Air Corps (the USAF did not become a “stand-alone” force until 1947) in 1941, and was one of the first US pilots sent to England in 1942 with the 8th Air Force (he was a co-pilot on B17s, and later became the pilot on B24s). After the war he flew with United Airlines a few years before he started his own business.
"At the age of 19, Landry was transferred to Sioux City, Iowa, where he trained as a copilot for flying a B-17.
In 1944, Landry got his orders, and from Sioux City he went to Liverpool, England, where he was assigned to the Eighth Air Force, 493rd Squadron in Ipswich.
Landry earned his wings and a commission as a Second Lieutenant at Lubbock Army Air Field, and was assigned to the 493d Bombardment Group at RAF Debach, England, as a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber copilot in the 860th Bombardment Squadron. From November 1944 to April 1945, he completed a combat tour of 30 missions, and survived a crash landing in Belgium after his bomber ran out of fuel."
The "Man in the Funny Hat" was a man of steel.
Survived Ploesti and the rest of his tour?
Your uncle was one of the luckiest men alive!
So that aspect of Catch-22 was not correct, then? (As soon as anyone got close, they would raise the number of missions).
I read the book in high school - thought it was good - the movie was beyond stupid. Maybe I matured.