Autopsy, Anatomy of Survival

The plane in front of me, flown by McGowen, belched smoke from its exhaust stacks at the rear of the engine cowling. There was a second burst of smoke and Mac began slowing down and the rotation of his propeller also slowed down. He pushed his stick forward in steep glide to maintain sufficient air speed. It was obvious he had lost power; his engine had quit on him. I could see the prop slowing down and it was obviously wind milling with only the forward speed of the airplane keeping the prop turning. He had slowed down until I was about to overrun him even though I had cut my throttle all the way back. I had to begin wide S-turns to stay behind Mac and I was barely above stalling speed even then. Mac rolled his overhead canopy back. I tried to stay in radio contact with Mac but he never did answer me. I don’t think he was receiving because he made absolutely no signal or sign that he heard me. I tried to warn him to cinch his shoulder straps up tight. If he left his shoulder straps loose and if he had to make a water landing or splash down his head would snap forward and strike the massive steel gun sight with his forehead. The impact force would be great enough to splatter his brains all over the gun sight. At that point I could not tell whether he had elected to ride the plane down and make a water landing or to bail out. After he rolled his canopy back he looked at me once. He made no sign that he had heard my transmission. His expression on his face (yes, I was very close) was one of stark terror. That fact and that expression will stay with me until I die! Mac had sufficient altitude and sufficient time to decide whether to bail out or ride the plane down. We were out over the Atlantic off the Olympia, Washington Coast about fifteen miles out from shore. We had reports and schooling that the F4F was a fairly safe airplane from which to bail out. However there were a few reports of pilots who bailed out had been snagged on the horizontal stabilizer part of the tail section. The vertical stabilizer was considered a possible danger, too. What the odds were on a safe jump we did not know. In many discussions with other pilots we could never reach a consensus as to which we would choose, bail out or try to land in the water. Some guys never did decide and indicated they would wait until it happened before they would make that decision. They decided to let circumstances dictate their choice. I personally think that Mac had never before decided which alternative he would take. He either waited too long to jump or he decided early that he would ride it down. His expression gave me no clue about what his decision was at that time. Though a minute earlier Mac and I had both been in the same world it was now different. We were now in two different worlds. There is no way in hell I could imagine what Mac’s world was then except for the expression on his face, which will go to my grave with me. I had expected Mac to project some signal or message. He didn’t I think he was paralyzed, a condition with which I was to become familiar with.