George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

y the USS Finnback, a submarine, that he "learned that neither Jack Delaney nor Ted
White had survived. One went down with the plane; the other was seen jumping, but his
parachute failed to open." The Hyams account of 1991 was written after an August 1988
interview with Chester Mierzejewski, another member of Bush's squadron, had raised
important questions about the haste with which Bush bailed out, rather than attempting a
water landing. Mierzejewski's account, which is summarized below, contradicted Bush's
own version of these events, and hinted that Bush might have abandoned his two
crewmembers to a horrible and needless death. The Hyams account, which is partly
intended to refute Mierzejewski, develops as follows:
...Bush was piloting the third plane over the target, with Moore flying on his wing. He nosed over
into a thirty-degree glide, heading straight for the radio tower. Determined to finally destroy the
tower, he used no evasive tactics and held the plane directly on target. His vision ahead was
occasionally cancelled by bursts of black smoke from the Japanese antiaircraft guns. The plane
was descending through thickening clouds of flak pierced by the flaming arc of tracers.
There was a sudden flash of light followed by an explosion. "The plane was lifted forward, and we
were enveloped in flames," Bush recalls. "I saw the flames running along the wings where the fuel
tanks were and where the wings fold. I thought, This is really bad! It's hard to remember the
details, but I looked at the instruments and couldn't see them for the smoke."
Don Melvin, circling above the action while waiting for his pilots to drop their bombs and get out,
thought the Japanese shell had hit an oil line on Bush's Avenger. "You could have seen that smoke
for a hundred miles."
Perhaps so, but it is difficult to understand why the smoke from Bush's plane was so
distinctly visible in such a smoke-filled environment. Hyams goes on to describe Bush's
completion of his bombing run. His account continues:
By then the wings were covered in flames and smoke, and the engine was blazing. He considered
making a water landing but realized it would not be possible. Bailing out was absolutely the last
choice, but he had no other option. He got on the radio and notified squadron leader Melvin of his
decision. Melvin radioed back, "Received your message. Got you in sight. Will follow."
[...] Milt Moore, flying directly behind Bush, saw the Avenger going down smoking. "I pulled up
to him; then he lost power and I went sailing by him."
As soon as he was back over water, Bush shouted on the intercom for White and Delaney to "hit
the silk!" [...] Dick Gorman, Moore's radioman-gunner, remembers hearing someone on the
intercom shout, "Hit the silk!" and asking Moore, "Is that you, Red?"
"No," Moore replied. "It's Bush, he's hit!"
Other squadron members heard Bush repeating the command to bail out, over and over, on the
radio.
There was no response from either of Bush's crewmen and no way he could see them; a shield of
armor plate between him and Lt. White blocked his view behind. He was certain that White and
Delaney had bailed out the moment they got the order. [fn 3]