One gentlemen was in his early 90’s. In 1943, he was with the rest of the crew of a B-17 for their 13th mission on a bombing run to Bremen, Germany. Their assignment was to attack a group of submarines stationed in a river. A German ME-109 attack left one of their engines on fire and the pilot determined to continue on the run. Soon thereafter a second engine caught fire as well (#3 & #4) and the pilot ordered the crew to bail out. My story teller was one of the waist gunners and he and the other waist gunner tried to get the door open to jump from the plane but could not budge it due to the air pressure. They finally got it open enough to squeeze through but my man got trapped only half way out the door. Suddenly an explosion freed him from the plane and he found himself flying through the air with B-17 pieces nearby.
After parachuting safely to the ground he was captured and ultimately was improsing in Stalag 17 (remember the movie?), and spent the rest of the war there.
Of the 10 crewmen only four survived the crash.
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Another gentleman told me that he was the unluckiest of all men as he would ultimately serve in three (3) wars (WWII, Korea & Vietnam). I suggested to him that I thought that he was the LUCKIEST soldier of all because he would ultimately come home from three (3) wars.