Evening star., 1944-01-30
Pilot Finds WAITING
For Ruling on Status
After Crash Is Ordeal
BY DANIEL DE LUCE,

Associated Press War Correspondent.
AN ALLIED AIR BASE IN
ITALY, Jan. 29-Three engines
had cut out and the fourth was
blazing when "Arky's" Flying Fort
ress cleared a jutting hill back Of
Palermo and headed like a dying
bird for the quiet waters OF the
bay.
Many searchlights poked gray nm
gers INTO the misty sky, trying to
point out the barrage balloons
whose trailing steel cables were, a
menace for the bomber.
'Arky" couldn't see the balloons,
but he could see the streaks of light
reflected on the fiat sea. Half Gid
ing, half falling, his big plane hit
belly first in the water.
That was November-end Of a
mission for 1t. Richard fArky)
Smith of Lime Springs, Iowa. Yes
terday nc confronted a medical
disposition board which decides
the future for airmen who gamble
with disaster and are lucky enough
to survive.
Square Deal Is Aim.
The boards purpose, as one vet
eran aviation physician explained,
Is to give a square deal" 1t is
empowered to send men home, to
give them ground jobs in this war
theater or allow them once again
to fly If their condition warrants it.
A small, slender, brown-haired
former insurance salesman, "Arky"
didn't know whether at the age Of
Is ne would be washed out as a
combat pilot. He was nervous
more nervous, he admitted, than
When he saw his first burst of en-
emy fax on his first raid, one on
the Rome airfields in October.
Il want to fly. 1 don't want to be
marked down as has-been," he
said.
The board already had been given
bis record for study. 1t showed that
after the Rome mission he success
fully completed three others-to ths
Wiener Neustadt aircraft factory in
Austria, to the Bolzano marshaling
yards near Brenner Pass and to the
Eleusis airdrome outside Athens
Over Bolzano, an enemy fighter
wrecked his oxygen equipment with
cannon shell, but he dived into
clouds and got away.
Mission Incomplete.
Officially, his Toulon mission was
incomplete. Near the French
coast, fire in his No. ! engine forced
him to turn back at 2:15 pm. BY
feathering his propeller, he put the
fire out. but the engine was useless.
At pm. the No. 2 engine failed
His crew dropped guns, bombs and
ammunition and some spare parts
overheard to tighten the load. No. 3
engine was also in trouble.
Darkness was closing in. No. 4
engine was overheating. But they
had reached a friendly coastline
"Arky" told his crew they could bail
out If they wanted to. They stuck.
"Arky'' nursed the bomber like q
mother. His men prayed.
They say Fortress engine is
only capable Of flying full throttle
for 10 minutes. My No. 4 flew that
way one hour and Is minutes. 1t
flew on when we couldn't believe it
possible, the young pilot reported.
Lights Turned On.
Palermo heard his radio appeal
and turned on lights. Its precious
altitude expended with utmost
miserlessness for five hours. The big
BIT almost scraped the rocky hill
top near field which the crew had
never seen before. Number 4 en-
gine burst into flames.
/ "Arky" turned toward the bay, all
his mechanical power gone and his
crew still praying. 1t was 7:20 pm,
Forty-five minutes later the airmen,
two OF them unconscious, were ress
cued from the water in which the
battered Fortress had disappeared.
One OF the first things the pilot did
in the hospital was to recommend
five Of his crew for decorations.
Today the Medical Disposition
Board carefully weighed the case,
Then "Arky" heard the verdict: Go
back to your squadron as a ground
officer. In the spring we can un-
ground you and you can complete
your so missions. You're not through
yet"
The pilots voice was shaky will,
, relief. Thank YOU" he said.