The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
BY RANDALL JARRELL
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
B-17 ball turret gunner Staff Sgt Maynard “Snuffy” Smith received the Medal of Honor for action on May 1, 1943. He was the first enlisted member of the USAAF to get the MOH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard_Harrison_Smith
FTS...I’m too big and wouldn’t fit.