Teamwork Tells

The story of what Capt. Charles S. Grant '39 calls his "most unforgettable flight" furnishes the copy for a full- page Army Air Forces ad appearing in magazines throughout the nation in November. Pictures of the Captain, who served as navigator of the B-26 which took part in the flight, a bombing mission over the New Guinea coast, illustrate the ad together with a reproduction of a painting of the high point of the incident.

Saying that "AAF training and team- work" brought the crew back, Captain Grant tells in his own words how gunners, bombardier, navigator, and pilot each swung into action when the responsibility revolved on them in turn of getting the craft to the target and back to base in as good shape as possible and with a whole crew.

Jap flak hit the bomber when the pilot had her at the peak of the bombing run, the gunners had cleared the skies, and the bombardier had the target square in his sight. An ack-ack shell tore through the bomb bay doors, jamming the bombs in their racks, severing the elevator controls and partially fouling the rudder and the ailerons. The plane stood on one wing and flames filled the navigator's compartment. By miraculous flying the pilot, Major Crosson, pulled the bomber out of a spin with the trim tabs. He headed for a landing spot 200 miles south, but rain and fog obscured landmarks and they proceeded on dead reckoning.

When the charts said the bomber should be over its base, it was. The pilot landed "with our wheels up, our flaps down, our bomb-bay doors wide open, and our bombs still hanging crazily in their racks. We should have been at the bottom of the Pacific. It was only the courage, skill and training of the crew that brought us all back."

ARMY AIR FORCE-AD in November nationally-circulated magazines features bomber- navigator, Capt. Charles S. Grant '39 (right) and his pilot, Major Gerald Crosson.