NIGHT RAID ON KANSAS

In 1943 my crew was stationed for a short time at
Dalhart, Texas for navigation and bombardier training. We
already had our regular assigned crew with a Captain Conklin
as our pilot. We took off on a night training mission late
one evening and headed north having check points in Kansas
and Nebraska. We were not flying very high, about 5,000 or
6,000 feet, so we could see all the lights of the various
cities although some were not lit up very much because of the
war. The Pilots and Navigator were doing all the work so the
crew didn't have much to do but watch for other planes and
sight-see.
Two of the engines were running rough so we were
passively concerned about them. Then it all began to happen
over the corn fields of Kansas. Our number one engine had to
be shut down because of loss of oil pressure and our number
three engine caught on fire. We were given the order to
prepare to bail out. I had never done this before, in fact I
don't think anyone on that plane had jumped before. Well it
didn't take long to make our choice. I got my hand on the
door handle and put my foot in the middle of the door. I
plugged into the intercom outlet near the door and waited for
the final "Go." The Pilots worked furiously to extinguish the
fire and restart number three engine. When that was done, we
got the order to stay with the plane as we were already on
our way back to the base. We made a safe landing at our base
in Dalhart with one engine out and one smoking. It has always
been a wonder what would have happened if we had had to
parachute into the corn fields of Kansas that night.
lb