Evening star., 1943-06-25
Flight Surgeon Finds
Case for Measuring
Nervous Stability
Report Tells of Pilot,
Painfully Wounded,
Bringing PIone Home
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,

SJSf Sthu Correspondent.
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
STATION, North Africa (By MaiD
Flight surgeons attached to. Air
Force stations have been instructed
to look out for outstanding cases of
nervous stability"
This is an element of extreme i'm
portance in the personality of men,
bers of combat crews. BY collecting
the records of many cases, together
with pertinent data on the men
themselves, 1t is hoped to find some
criterion by which men likely to
remain calm in emergencies can be
collected.
Il think I've got good case to-
day." said the flight surgeon here
as he worked over report he was
about to turn in. 1t follows:
The hero of this story is boy
23 years old. He Is slender and of
medium height. He was born and
raised on a farm and has always
been interested in mechanics. He
Is quiet and soft-spoken. He is
neither extremely introverted nor
extroverted. He is never in any
particular hurry but is conscien-
tious and never is late at briefings.
He drinks little or none, smokes,
but doesn't hell around much. He
pilots a twin engine pursuit plane.
Cockpit Hit by Shell.
While on mission over water
the other day the weather was poor
The pilots had to pull through a
long overcast and some were tenn
porarily lost. This pilot lost his
way but, not wishing to turn back.
he kept on flying. He finally sight
ed squadron of similar type planes
and Joined them. When their mis-
sion was about complete they were
attacked by fairly large force of
enemy aircraft.
In the ensuing fight this pilots
cockpit was hit by a 20-mm. shell
which exploded and scattered frag-
ments of shell. metal, etc, through
out the cockpit. The pilot suffered
multiple large wounds in his right
arm, and one large fragment buried
itself deep in in the fiexor muscles
OF the forearm. There were no
fractures and no large nerves were
severed. He suffered tremendous
loss of blood and severe pain. He
says he was unable OF make co-ordi-
mated movements with his right arm
and any movement was painful.
Fails to Get Escort.
"AS soon as he was nit, he tried
to remove the clothing around the
wound and apply a bandage but
was unable to unfasten his kit. The
rest of the squadron was circling to
pick up stragglers. The pilot asked
for one-plane escort home but.
because of the tactical situation.
they could not spare him the es-
cort, so it was necessary to pro-
ceed alone.
He was suffering intense pain
and tried to reach his morphine
surrette but could not. He began
to get dizzy and lightheaded. He
opened the side windows a crack
and that helped a little. Then he
turned on the oxygen and placed
the hose in his mouth. That, he
said. made him feel lot better.
Soon he became very tired.
He said that he poured the fuel
to his engine because he did not
know how long he could hold out.
Although he said that he didn't
think his navigation was very
good-all the time flying over
water-he landed at the closest
possible safe airport
''As he approached land he saw a
single landing strip He had been
flying the plane with one hand, and
now 1t was necessary to land. He
saw that he was going to under
shoot the field a little. Therefore,
he let go of everything and ma
neuvered the plane with his left
hand to make perfect landing.
He later complained that the land
ing strip was a little rough.
He opened the hood and climbed
out. There was blood all over the
floor of the cockpit, on the stick
and all over the walls. He said he
wanted to get his message through
to the squadron before the other
fellows started dividing up his stuff.
Il guess I got out of the wrong
side of the bed this morning" was
his only other remark
This, in the Air Force, is ner-
vous stability.