The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-06-14
Chapter XVII

In warm weather JneSe SUITS
acquired an odor similar to that OF
a goat which has been in the barn
all winter and the fur itself was
far from comfortable. On the trip
back a piston froze in the engine.
for two days the cadet was alter
nately roasting in the southern sun
and freezing in the Texas nights
while he guarded his ship and wait
ed for a new engine.
After our return from Calves
ton while we were practicing form
alton attack on two seaters, l ex-
perienced one of the incidents OF
the military pilots life. / made
my first emergency parachute
Jump. When an Army plane crash
ses, the pilot is required to write a
detailed report of the crash. My
account was as follows:
"a nine-ship SE-5 formation,
commanded by Lieutenant Black
burn, was attacking a DH-4B,
flown by Lieutenant Vaughan at
about a 5000 foot altitude and
several hundred feet above the
clouds. / was flying on the left of
the top unit, Lieutenant McAllister
on my right, and Cadet Love lead
ing. When we nosed down on the
oh, attacked from the left and
lieutenant McAllister from the
right. After, Cadet Love pulled up,
I continued to dice on the OH for
a short time before pulling up to
the left. saw no other ship
nearby.
81 passed above the OH and a
moment later felt a slight jolt fol-
lowed by a crash. My head was
thrown forward against the cowl-
ing and my plane seemed to turn
around and hang nearly motionless
for an instant. l closed the throt-
tie and saw an SE-5 with Lieut..
McCallister in the cockpit, a few
feet on my left. He was apparent
ly unhurt and getting ready to
jump.
t'Our ships were locked together
with the fuselages approximately
parallel. My right wing was dam
aged and had folded back slight
ly, covering the forward right-hand
corner of the cockpit. Then the
ships started to mill around and
the wires began whistling. The
right wing commenced vibrating
and striking my head at the bot
tom of each oscillation. 1 re-
moved the rubber band safetying
the belt, unbuckled it, climbed out
past the trailing edge of the dam
aged wing, and with my feet on
the cowing on the right side of the
cockpit, which was then in a near
ly vertical position, l jumped back
wards, as far from the ship as pos
sible. l had no difficulty in locat-
ing the pull-ring and experienced
no sensation of falling. The
wreckage was falling nearly
straight down and for some time i
fell in line with its path and only
slightly to one side. Fearing the
wreckage might fall on me, l did
not pull the rip cord until l drop
ped several hundred feet and into
the clouds. During this time 1 had
turned one-half revolution and was
falling fiat and face downward.
The parachute functioned perfect
ly; almost as soon as l pulled the
rip cord the riser perked on my
shoulders, the leg straps frightened,
my head went down, and the chute
fully opened.
81 saw Lieut.. McAllister floating
above me and the wrecked ships
pass about 100 yards to one side,
continuing to spin to the right and
leaving trail of lighter fragments
along their path. l watched them
until, still locked together, they
crashed in the mesquite about g.
900 feet below and burst into
flames several seconds after i'm
pact.
"NeXt l turned my attention to
locating a landing place. Twas ov-
er mesquite and drifting in the
general direction of plowed field
which reached by slipping the
chute. Shortly before striking the
ground, was drifting backwards,
but was able to swing around in
the harness just as / landed on the
side of a ditch less than 100 feet
from the edge of the mesquite. AL
though the impact of landing was
too great for me to remain stand