The Washington times., 1919-01-26
"LuckieSt Man in War;
Fell From Sky Thrice,
Shot Down Once; Lives

NEW YORK. Jan. 26.-"The luckiest
hnan in the war"
The Iuckiest, not from the view
boint OF the man who got his thrills
from a newspaper; not the luckiest.
even. in the opinion of the doughboy,
or the sailor who risked his neck on
khe seas or under them. but the luck
best on the testimony OF the luckiest
bunch of lighters that ever faced the
&ermans-the combat aviators OF the
allies. whether British, Italian or
American-which,o one might admit, Is
some luck.
The Luckiest Man is Lieut.. Waldo
n. Heinrichs. late of the Ninety-hfth
aero squadron, first of the American
sauadrons to take the air against the
Germans. who recently arrived from
France after two months in prison
HospftaI at Metz. He was in the
same fight in which Lieut. Quentin
Roosevelt was killed, and his room
mate. Lieut.. William H. Taylor, son
Of W. H. Taylor, OF the Hotel An
sonia, this city. was killed the day
after Henrichs was shot down.
A Few Experiences.
Here are some of the things that
happened to Heinrichs:
Dodged splinters from propeller
which was torn completely off when
be was fS ing at full speed at height
Of 1900 feet. landing without
scratch.
FelI a mile in plane from which
most of top wing had been stripped in
collision with a German he was fight-
ing. but landed right side up.
Turned a double somersault in ma
chine which was blown into ditch as
landing ESCAPED
without a scratch
Fell 5000 feet. wounded in ten
places, yet dived through some tele-
graph wires and made a safe landing.
Almost Smashed Up.
with arm broken in two pisces. ell
bow smashed, both jaws broken, two
bullets in hand, one in thigh. wound
in right ankle, anoIfsr in left heel,
fifteen teeth gone ana right side OF
face torn out by explosive bullet, ne
lived two. months in a prison hospital
which had three surgeons and six
nurses to care for GOO men,
And last. but most important Of al,
Heinrichs was foIu1 iii that hospital
in the nick of time. He nad llveo
only on his nerve, the surgeons
agreed, and his morale was at Its
lowest ebb when willard H. Williams,
Y NJ. c. A. secretary, who was :he
first American to enter Metz, appeared
in the hospital, the first visible con-
firrnation that the allied forces were
close at hand
And let me say that he was
welcome citizen" Heinrehs declareS
-Since / have got back I have heard
things said about the ~ that don't
correspond at all with my experience
with that organization. There was
a " outfit with our squadron most
OF the time, and it was one Of the
biggest helps we had. You can try
to imagine how we all felt when that
" man reached us at Metz-an ex-
ample OF enterprise If anything is.
And after ] left the hospital 1 was
entertained by " men at Tours, AT
the officers hotel. ! have nothing
but good to say OF them
War Cross With Palm.
The scars of ten wounds ard the
Croix de Guerre. with a palm, are
some Of the evidences He'urichs bears
that he was in the war. He enlisted
as a. private in the ground school foT
aviators at Boston Tech. and was
one of the ten honor graduates. He
went overseas a year ago last July.
took. the finishing courses at Tours,
Nvord, Issoudon and CazauX and on
February IA went to the Champagne
front with the Ninety-fifth Squadron.
Heinrichs got his Grst taste of war
on patrol duty between Cha!Ons and
Rheims and had his first fight within
a week. 1t was a quiet sector, how
ever, end the squadron was trans
fcrred al the end of the two months
10 the Chemin des Danes. The next
shift was 10 the region about st.
Nihicl ard Pont -Mousson. Then
THINGS began 20 livcn up a bit.
German flyers grew venturesome
and the Americans were doing a gooG
average business when one day Helm
ricHs encountered German who
wanted to fight. After little pre-
Iininary maneUVe. ng Eeinricbs got
in close ard dived on his anita gonisJ,
Eis machine gun going fun tilt. AS
Ie ran the German down he passed
30 close under him tha; he struck
:ar tail Of the. Germans machine.