He was a top turret gunner/3rd pilot for a B-17 bomber. While flying a mission over europe, they were in a battle where german fighters were flying among the bombers wreaking havoc. He was looking for a target when he saw one tail turret go up and then the other (meaning the men were hit). It was then that a german fighter came out of the clouds and set his sites on him, while he set his sites on the gunner. They fired at each other and my teacher ripped the german engine to shreds and he could tell that it was a dead plane. The dead plane crashed into the tail of the bomber and the plane went into a dive. My professor, struggled to get his parachute on, but couldn't get it all the way on with the g-forces involved. He crawled past the pilots who were stuck in their seats with the wrong type of parachute to an escape hatch. The last thing he remembered was pounding on the escape hatch. He woke up falling through the air. He pulled his parachute, and he only had one side on, so it really tweaked his rib cage. He landed and was caught be germans and was put in a prisoner of war camp. Everyone else on his plane died.

He shared that with us on veteran's day probably a decade ago.

BG