[woofie]

bump

[glegakis]

[longtermmemmory]

bump

[Boiling point]

I recall a similar story I read in elementary school in the sixties. The story I recall had the B-17 crew member leaping out after finding the chutes on fire and decided it better to fall to his death rather than burn. His boots were ablaze when he jumped and he blacked out after leaving the plane. After falling about 13000 ft I believe, he fell through pine trees and landed in deep snow on a steep slope and slid to a stop. His only injuries were burned feet. He blew his whistle and was shortly captured by the Germans, who disbelieved his story. After finding the wreckage, and extrapolating the flight path, he became somewhat of a celebrity with the Germans. Does anyone recall this? is it the same guy, or a different story altogether?

[SamAdams76]

I vaguely remember reading about this before but I still find it hard to believe a man could fall 22,000 feet without a parachute and survive. A glass skylight "breaking" his fall? C'mon.

[RightOnline]

Memo to the 82nd and 101st: Think we just found a cost savings for ya.

[amom]

what a story. Thanks for the post.

Thought you might like to see this. There's a great photo there too.

http://www.303rdbga.com/c-360-adams.html

ADAMS CREW - 360th BS
B-17F Garbage #41-24563 (PU-H)
(original crew assigned 360BS: 26 July 1942 - photo: 14 Oct 1942)

[A CA Guy]

A remarkable story.

[SAMWolf]

HOLY SMOKE!!! It just wasn't his time.

[jordan8]

From Guinness:

Highest fall survived without parachute

Who: Vesna Vulovic
When: January 26th, 1972
Where: Somewhere over the Czech Republic
What: 33,330 ft.
Vesna Vulovic, a flight attendant from Yugoslavia, survived a fall from 10,160 m. (33,330 ft.) when the DC-9 in which she was traveling blew up over Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), on January 26, 1972. No other passengers survived. It is believed the plane crashed after the detonation of a bomb planted by Croatian terrorists in the forward cargo hold. Vesna Vulovic fell 10,160 m. (33,330 ft.) - breaking both legs and becoming paralyzed from the waist down.

[jordan8]

What is the Highest Jump WITHOUT a Parachute?

1. "Lieutenant I. M. Chisov of the former Soviet Union was flying his Ilyushin 4 on a bitter cold day in January 1942, when it was attacked by 12 German Messerschmitts. Convinced that he had no chance of surviving if he staged with his badly battered plane, Chisov bailed out at 21,980 feet. With the fighters still buzzing around, Chisov cleverly decided to fall freely out of the arena. It was his plan not to open his chute until he was down to only 1000 ft above the ground. Unfortunately, he lost consciousness en route. As luck would have it, he crashed at the edge of a steep ravine covered with 3 ft of snow. Hitting at about 120 mi/h, he plowed along its slope until he came to rest at the bottom. Chisov awoke 20 min later, bruised and sore, but miraclously he had suffered only a concussion of the spine and a fractured pelvis. Three and one-half months later he was back at work as a flight instructor." Hecht, Eugene. Physics: Calculus. 2nd ed. United States: Brooks/Cole, 2000. p 85

2. Flight Sergeant Nicholas Steven Alkemade was on a bombing mission over Germany on 23 March 1944 when his Lancaster bomber flying at 18,000 feet was blazed apart and in flames when he was forced to jump, without a parachute or be burn to death. He dove out of his destroyed aircraft hoping on a quick death. His speed accelerated to over 120 miles per hour and he impacted on a snow covered sloping forest. He was completely uninjured and later captured by the Germans who refused to believe his story.

[wolficatZ]

"Flack City" ???

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I'm not sure I have all the details exactly, but the father of one of my high school classmates survived but barely when he was shot down over Italy. Apparently during the hit on his plane, the lower part of his right arm was severed and, the way the parachute pull was designed, he needed that arm to do the pulling. Somehow, miraculously, part of the chute had started working its way loose out of the pack, and finally opened up of its own accord in time for him to fall safely to the ground. He is also now passed along, and his name was Darrell Reno. He served as a Circuit Court Judge in my hometown county seat for many years.

My dad who also served in WW II told me this story some time back, and I'll check back with him tomorrow to just to make sure I have the story totally straight.

[Dajjal]

Amazing!

[DoctorMichael]

Bump.

[CedarDave]

Paul Logan does a pretty good job writing obits for the Journal. Wonder if he does any articles on living people and events.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

HOLY SH*T what a story!

[Paulus Invictus]

It's hard not to compare the heros of the past with the America-trashing, president hating RATs like Kerry who are the real traitors. Ann Coulter was right, RATS are traitors!

[Johnny Gage]

Holy cow ping!

[krb]