This is a story about John Minges, now deceased, who served with me in
China. He was a very private person, so we did not become friends, but
he did serve as one of my crew for a time.
Even though John was in China for only 18 months, he learned to speak
and write Chinese, which I thought remarkable.
On one mission bringing back civilians from
an area we were evacuating because of the certainty of takeover by the
Japanese, John was on board as engineer--on a ship other than mine.
At some point in the flight--luckily over friendly territory--the plane
developed major mechanical problems and was going down. John's job at
that moment was to get the civilians into their parachutes and out the
door.
Instructing one Chinese gentleman on using the ripcord, the man
excitedly pulled the handle right there in the aircraft, and the
"jumpchute" (the small preliminary chute) cascaded out of the backpack.
John quickly gathered up the silk into a ball, shoved it into the man's
chest, had him tightly wrap his arms around the silk, and then shoved
him out the door. He cleared the tail of the aircraft OK, and the chute
opened.
John's most difficult task presented itself
when a Chinese Nun, petrified as to what was happening, hung on for
"dear life" to a bar just behind her seat. Those who were there said
John coolly slugged her in the jaw, knocking her unconscious. He then
took a 20 foot piece of rope (always available in cargo aircraft), tied
one end to a bar over the door and the other to the ripcord handle of
her parachute, and threw her out the door. The chute opened and she
landed safely.
These things took enough time that John himself barely made it out in
time. The plane had been losing altitude, and he jumped at the minimum
altitude for safety.
While John's actions were surely heroic, the greater act of heroism was
that of the pilot and co-pilot who were struggling all this time to
maintain a descent that did give John time to accomplish his work. Those
2 men did not survive; their bodies were found in the wreckage, still in
their seats.
