Marvin J. Miller, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Luke Kelly, June 11, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. 242

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Marvin J. Miller Jun II 001 The bombardier had gone into the waist. Th tail gunn r "'a n nc ·idl: r th ball turret. And he told him to get out. And the tail gunn r t pp d ut 11 th at,,alk. 'l ht: radi01nan was standing up and had his parachute on. And the b mbardi r had hi par, chuk. I guess they were going to throw the hatch open and get the other :fl 11 w ut. But ab ut that time the plane went into a dive and it threw the tail gunner out through the b mb bay. I Ie opened his chute and survived but the three in the waist were pinned in the wai t by th centrifugal force. They were in the aircraft when it crashed. o, we lost Lt. Riley-th bombardier, T/Sgt Renz-the radioman, and S/Sgt Grizek-the ball turret gum1er. As I was coming down, I started thinking about all the things that I'd heard about being in a parachute and coming down in enemy territory and being shot at by airplanes. AJl these things were running through my mind. What was I to do, or what should I do? I saw buildings coming up, and then I saw people running. I saw a little lake, or a body of water, just out in front of me at a little distance. I saw smne trees. I had no idea how fast I was falling. About that time, I started to think. "Well now, what did they tell us about how we should land?"never having jun1ped before. The only briefing we'd received was they told us to land with our feet together and our knees bent. I saw the ground coming up so I started bending my knees. I got my left knee bent and I lit on the ball of my right foot. I hit the ground and the parachute started dragging me. I reached up and spilled the air out of the chute. The fall tore the ligaments in 1ny right foot and twisted my left knee. I rolled over and sat up and a German said, "Hands up." He had a Luger gun. It looked like a cannon to me. Then he asked 1ne for my weapon. I didn't have a 45. I couldn't 22