The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-02-06
LIEUT.. PAT UBRIEN
HOMECOMING OF AVIATOR HERO
WAS BIGGEST DAY In HIS
TORY OF MOMENCE, ILL.

Chicago, Feb. 6.-Lieut. Patrick
Alva O'Brien, of the British Royal
Flying Corps. known at home and
abroad as Pat O'Brien, who is spend
ing a three months furlough in his
home town, Momence, Kankakee
county, ILL.,, is receiving all the hon.
age that could possibly be accorded
a returned hero.
The town closed It's schools and
stores, draped its streets in flags. and
its whole population me Pat at the
station with the biggest brass band
they could find.
And there was Nom" and Multi
gan and Buck and Bud, and all the
rest of the o'Brien family to greet
him, and Pat declares II was better
than the reception given him by King
George and all the lionizing he re-
ceived In London. New York and Chi
cago on his way home.
Pat Is not only a hero of national
fame, but his daring adventures have
been the sensation of a whole world,
and yet he declares he was scared
when he was called or to make a
speech to his home folks at Momence.
He is the same Pat O'Brien who
was shot down from 5000 feet in the
air in a battle with the Germans;
who dived from out the window OF a
35-mile an hour train to escape be-
ing carted off to a German camp;
who walked swan and crawled $50
miles in 70 days across Germany,
Luxembourg and Belgium; and who
finally, after being half electrocized
on the 9-foot fence that ropes off
Holland, dug his way under with his
bare hands.
Pat describes how he got hit by
the Germans in the following words:
II was out with four other ma
chimes for our daily two hours and a
half. At $40 o'clock we had crossed
the German line and my instrument
showed we were 10000 feet in the
air. I was feeling glad 1t was nearly
time to start home when we sighted
nine of the Huns.
Three British planes joined us
and we went into an attack, and no
sooner were we engaged than IL
more Huns dived down on us, and
consequently we got hell.
-Four Of them seemed to have
picked me out. I got one of EN-.
He was 80 feet away when I saw my
stream of tracer bullets from my
vickers going In his neck, and all the
time I could see and hear the bullets
from the machine guns OF those other
German planes pounding around me.
Sure, you can see the bullets. and
every third bullet in my gun was like
a blue ball OF fire. The Huns use
'em, too, but the French s smoke
tracers.
II fought like the devil, for /
thought I was a 'goner' anyway. /
knew IL I ran for II I would about
fetch up in No Mans Land. which is
no place to fetch up, and l was pop
ping it to 'em whenever I could get a
line on a Hun, when I got this" and
Lieut.. O'Brien showed a ragged scar
which his short. bristling mustache
hides, and for which he wears the
gold stripe on his sleeve.
Well. l felt the blow all right. and
for the millionth part of a second
thought, i've got mine
THE next thing / knew I walked
up next morning in a German hos
pital just east OF Ypres. There was
a big push on and they had field hos
pitfalls everywhere, and we were five
miles back Of their lines"
Then came his escape and ulti-
mately his arrival in America. He
is writing a book. "Outwitting the
Huns" setting out his experiences,
during his furlough. Meanwhile he
is working for a transfer to air serv-
ice of Uncle Sam.