The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-08-20
Home On A Wing And A Prayer
By HAROLD GUARD United Press Staff Correspondent ]

Somewhere in New Guinea, Aug 19.-(Delayed)-(UP) = With his four mates shot and the Mitchell a battered mess, Staff Sgt. Joseph A. Carroll pinned his faith on the first aid instruction book and the bomber got home.
 Carroll, a 21-year-old radioman from College Point, Long Island, N. r., was the only one left to do the job-to prop the navigator in his seat over the maps, to give the bleeding pilot the last oxygen bot tie, to scramble over the open bomb- bay and fight off enemy planes.
 They got in, on a belly landing. The ship had 25O bullet holes from Japanese planes that fought it over Wewak Wednesday in a rain storm. All but Carroll went to the hospi- tai but they're recovering.
 Carroll started the treatment aboard the ship-like the first aid instructions say, he put 1t while it wobbled home 300 miles with the controls gone, the hydraulic system damned and the rudder smashed.
 An Awful Jolt
 We were approaching the WeWak target in formation," Carroll told me, when something gave us an aw- ful jolt in the tail. I reported to the pilot we were badly damaged and he said okay, he'd be careful.
 Then we were right in the mid- dle of big fight with zeros com- ing from all directions. I was too busy to see exactly what happened to our ship but saw the Zero tracers coming through the fuselage and I knew were getting hit plenty
 "Then the pilot called for me to come forward. This meant scram- bling over that bomb bay and its awkward job. I found the pilot, the co-pilot and the navigator all wounded and bleeding.
 1T got the first aid kit and band aged the pilot and co-pilot and gave them sulfa pills. The naviga- tor seemed in bad way so gave him a morphine injection according to the directions in the first aid kit. Then I went aft again be- cause the Zeros were all around us. /"
 Carroll didn't know 1t then but other Mitchell pilots said the zeros realized the plight of the craft and kept up the attack on 1t for 45 min utes and they reported-which Car roll didn't mention-that only Car rolls radio skill kept the wounded pilot from getting lost.
 Wounded Gunner Fires
 "The turret gunner was still blaz- ing away" Carroll went on, but he was bleeding from facial wounds. Then the pilot called for oxygen because he'd climbed about 17,000 feet. I found only one bottle un- smashed and took it to him be- cause I figured he was the most im- portant man.
 '"The pilot had trouble finding the course so propped up the navigator to study the maps and he told me what to tell the pilot. The co-pilot was slumped over his heel so haul ed him back with the navigator but he rallied and insisted on returning to his seat.
 "The pilot never seemed to lose Nearing home when we knew we would have to crash land, he asked whether we preferred to bail out or take our chances. We stayed aboard. We had to work everything by hand.
 T was still cranking the flaps down when we landed. I guess my first aid wasn't 50 hot. I used a sweat shirt to bandage the CO., pilot and wanted to put a tourni- quet on the navigator but didn't have time to release 1t every 15 minutes like the instruction book says"