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Posted on 10/02/2004 11:45:41 PM PDT by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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 Crisis in the Cockpit The copilot, John Morgan, had two alternatives: pull the plug on a wounded friend or fight him for control of the stricken B-17. At mid-1940, with war raging in Europe and the United States sure to become involved, it looked as though John Morgan was never going to be an Army flyer. The 6-foot-2-inch, 210-pound Texan had been classified 4-F by his draft board as a result of an earlier accident in which he had broken his neck. But the Royal Canadian Air Force, more interested in willing warriors than in medical history, welcomed Morgan into its pilot-training program. A year later, he was in England, wearing the RCAF uniform but flying bombers for the Royal Air Force. In May 1943, Morgan transferred to the US Army Air Forces as a flight officer and was assigned to the 92d Bomb Group's 326th Squadron, based at Alconbury. Sixty days later, on July 18, Morgan sat in the right seat of a B-17 as copilot for 1st Lt. Robert Campbell, a huge, muscular Mississippian, as they climbed out over the North Sea, and headed for Hanover and one of the most remarkable bomber sorties of the war. Before the bomber stream reached the Dutch coast, it came under heavy attack by Luftwaffe fighters. The intercom of Morgan's plane was shot out, the tail, waist, and ball-turret guns ceased firing, a cannon shell shattered the windshield on the copilot's side, and a machine-gun bullet struck pilot Campbell in the head, splitting open his skull. Campbell, semiconscious and in a crazed condition, fell forward, locking his arms around the control column. Morgan knew that if the B-17 dropped out of formation it would be easy prey to German fighters. Flying with his right hand, he dragged Campbell off the controls, holding him back in the pilot's seat with his left arm. The wounded pilot continued to fight instinctively for the controls as Morgan maneuvered back into formation. He now had two alternatives: pull Campbell's oxygen mask off, which, at 26,000 feet, would have been fatal to the wounded man, or fight the crazed pilot for control of the B-17 as long as his strength lasted, hoping that another crew member might come up to the cockpit and help. He chose the latter alternative. Once again enemy fighters came in. As they pulled up over the riddled B-17, the top turret gunner fell to the floor, one arm shot off at the shoulder. Morgan's navigator, Keith Koske, unable to apply a tourniquet, got the gunner into a chute and pushed him out the lower hatch, believing correctly that the minus 50-degree F. cold would stop the bleeding. The gunner survived, was cared for by German surgeons, and was repatriated in late 1944.  The navigator, bombardier, and engineer were aware from the B-17's erratic flight that something was wrong in the cockpit, but all were too busy fighting off attackers to leave their stations. For two hours, John Morgan held formation, all the time fighting to keep the irrational Campbell off the controls. Finally, after bombs-away, navigator Koske came up to the cockpit and, shocked by the grisly scene, helped Morgan get Campbell out of the pilot's seat. As the formation let down over the North Sea, the gunners Morgan had believed to be dead appeared on the flight deck. Their oxygen system had been knocked out in the first fighter attack and they had been unconscious until the bombers descended to lower altitude. Campbell died minutes after Morgan landed the battered bomber at an RAF base near the English coast. On Dec. 17, 1943, Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker, Commander of the Eighth Air Force, presented 1st Lt. John C. Morgan the Medal of Honor in recognition of his heroic acts over Germany that July day. General Eaker directed Morgan to fly no more combat. But Morgan decided that if the war was not over for the Allies, it wasn't over for him. He volunteered for several more missions, including the first Berlin raid of March 6, 1944. On that day, Morgan's war against Nazi Germany came to an end. His B-17 was shot down and he remained an unwilling guest of the Luftwaffe until V-E Day. Morgan must surely be the only draft-classified 4-F to serve with the air forces of three nations, fly 26 combat missions (he says it really was only 25 and a half) with the RAF and the AAF, earn this country's highest decoration for valor, and spend 14 months as a POW. No American who survived World War II paid his dues more fully than that tough, tenacious Texan.  John "Red" Morgan dishes hot water from a field kitchen in the North I compound at Stalag Luft I      |
Good afternoon Grzegorz.
Good afternoon manna.
We'd be lost without it! Hi Gail.
Neat, especially when patriot sized. ;-)
LOL. Sam and family are on the bi-weekly grocery shopping trip. I'm expecting him to fall in to the Foxhole when he's finished. I'll ask if he wants to go hiking up the Mountain. ;-)
Good afternoon, SAM. He was quite a hero, you're exactly right. And, as usual, humble about it. Truly one of the best of the best from the Greatest Generation.
Afternoon CholeraJoe.
Good Morning Mayor.
Morning Fog has burned off and it's a beautiful warm sunny day.
Afternoon Grzegorz 246
Afternoon GailA.
It was a loooooong morning yesterday.
Afternoon PE.
Nice one. :-)
Afternoon Samwise.
Think I'll pass. ;-)
No. ;-)
Real heroes don't need to brag and remind everyone they're a hero.
Cool!
When I ran gimmick rallies in my youth, we had a guy who did up his Opel Cadet as a German night fighter.
Shouldn't that be an Opel Kadet :-)
My dad had a 1970 Opel Kadet, it had a 1.9L engine with a 5 speed. Man could that little thing scream on the hiway, yeehaw.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
It was a long afternoon yesterday doing our Bush street rally. I'm still catching up. I was quite tired when I got home.
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