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Show Marvin J. Miller .Jun 11 2001 n our missions, after we'd take ff, we'd g t r th driati a and t~ ·t fir ur gun to make sure they were working. On one n1issi n w w re h ad d ut nd g t O\ er the Adriatic and I clin1bed into the top turret. That was tny assigmn nt. t and 165 pounds; fairly good sized for a gunner. They wanted me to be in th ball turr t, but I wa t big, thank goodness. And in the turrets you didn't have a lot of space. The switch t turn th sight on-so that you could fire the guns and all-was located on the bottom of the s at. , I had climbed into the turret and locked the seat up in place. And I turned tny head and flipped the switch to turn the guns on, and just at that time something hit me in the side of the head. I reached up and there was blood all over. The bombardier had seen the plexiglass come down, and he hollered up at me. I said, "Well, I've been hit by something. I don't lmow what." And I was bleeding quite bad. So, I flipped the latch on the seat and got down on the flight deck and the bombardier looked at it. What had happened was somebody had forgotten to zip the bag that caught the empty shell cases in one of the planes up above us. And this empty shell case had come back and hit my turret. And the glass had come in and cut me on the face. The bombardier put a bandage on it and asked me how I felt. I said, "Oh, I feel fine. I'm okay." But the pilot called and said he had a wounded man onboard and he was aborting the mission. So, he turned back. I told him, "Now, don't do that." I said, "I'll be okay." But he tun1ed back. When we landed we had the ambulance follow us. As soon as the plane stopped rolling they were over there with a stretcher. I climbed out of the aircraft, and they wanted to put me on the stretcher, and I said, "No, I'm okay." I had this big bandage up on my face. And 16 |
