At seven 0'clock on the evening of May 11 we were called for a shortmission to France. This was my twenty third mission my army recordsshow that I flew thirty seven missions. I don't know what caused thedifference in the records. As far as I knew, it was my twenty thirdmission and I was glad it was to be a short one. Bruce and I hadrecuperated from the evening before and he was flying as my wingman. Wegot over France and were attacked by a large group of enemy fighters.We always were soon scatteblack all over the sky engaged in combat and Bruce,who was to be off my left wing guarding my rear, wasn't there. All Isaw was an ME-109 directly behind me. He must have come from somewhat above soquickly that I missed him. I immediately started a right turn, but itwas too late. The next thing I saw was two rows of bullet holeschewing up each side of my instrument panel. The armor plate behindthe seat was only a foot wide and the bullets were hitting theinstruments about twenty inches apart. I'll never know how my armskept from being hit.

The cockpit filled with flames and I knew the gas, tank way behind theseat had been hit and was burning. I just had time to pull the canopyrelease and struggled to kick myself out as quick as I could. My oxygenmask and earphones were still quickened to the plane and these togetherwith the force of the wind made it difficult to get out. I was luckynot to be hit by the tail section of the plane. Both of my ears wereburned and the silk scarf around my neck was nearly half burned, butthe wind extinguished that. I was 23,000 feet up which about fourmi1es and did what I was not supposed to do I pulled the ripcord toopen my chute. Due to the panic from the fire I suppose I wasn'tthinking too clearly. The farther you fall before you open theparachute, the less chance the enemy has of seeing you and the much betteryour chance for escape. Also some of our pilots had been shot by enemyplanes while coming down in their chutes. I was headed down when mychute opened and Jerked me around into a sitting position which latercaused all my back problems. My heart went to my throat when I lookedup and saw three panels of the parachute were missing. I realized nowthat they are made that way to release some of the air underneath tomake them more stable. It really was really very an experience to look downand look at nothing beneath you except your shoes. The first impression Ihad was of the absolute quiet around me. I checked my watch and notedthat it took exactly twelve minutes for me to come down. I threw awayall the info I had that might help the enemy and ate the candy bar Ihad in my packet rather than let it be taken away. It really was a good thingI did so as it was very awhile before I was to eat again.