It has not been very nice of me not to have written sooner; as a matter of fact it's been rather cruel of me. I left Fargo sooner than I expected and received your letter some time later. There really is no excuse, however, for my not writing sooner. We'll just have to put it down to unfeeling stupidity and reluctance.
      To get to the point:--------
      I shall tell you all I know of the circumstances of your son's death. It happened on the sixth (sic) of February. Four of us were out on a straffing mission flying A-36's. We started straffing north of Rome and worked our way down towards Cassino. We were almost done when the leader decided to strafe a valley leading from Avezzano down to Sora, Italy. At the time we were at about nine thousand feet. We turned right and dove in formation down to about two hundred feet going south down this valley to Sora. I was flying Truman's wing and was a little higher, to the right side and a little in back of him. We had just gotten to the end of the valley, absolutely uneventfully, when it happened. The valley opened onto a small plain. The town of Sora was at the foot of the last mountain of the righthand range of mountains. I was pretty well engrossed in looking where I was going, and looking for something to strafe, and also looking around for enemy aircraft. As the leader reached the end of the valley he made a shallow turn to the left and therefore neither he nor his wingman saw what happened. I was the only Allied witness. We would check our formation position only periodically in the midst of our other functions. As we got to the end of the valley he seemed alright. We were doing about 300 mph at the time. I looked around then looked back and he had changed from straight and level to a rather steep dive of about 50 degrees. I skidded out to the right to cover him as my first thought was that he had seen something to strafe, although his angle of dive made me wonder a little. His airplane had all its major parts, at least I could see nothing wrong. This all happened in about one second so I really had no time for close observation or too much thought. He made no attempt to recover from the dive and crashed, exploding immediately. It is difficult to explain my reaction. I was horrorstricken to say the least. I immediately started to circle the spot looking hopefully for a parachute. We had seen no enemy fire up until I'd circled the spot once, then Jerry cut loose with everything he had. I circled three times calling on the radio, hoping against hope that somehow my eyes had misled me. By the time I'd finished the third circle at about three hundred feet the sky was so full of "flak" that I couldn't have seen a chute had there been one, so I had to give up and get out of there while my own skin was intact. We went home and I reported the circumstances and he was listed as missing in action because I could not guarantee that he'd been killed nor could I guarantee that he had been in the plane when it crashed. Funny things happen in combat, and one cannot be sure at times.
      After our troops had taken the locality our intelligence officer went to the spot to find the wreck. He found the wreck and talked to the Italians in the locality. Truman was buried about ten feet from where the plane crashed. The Italians had been keeping the grave very nicely. They had been putting flowers on it often. I believe it's still located in the same place. It's possible that the Army has moved it to a military cemetery but probably not. On inspection of the wreck a hole was found in one part of the canopy. This led us to believe that he had been shot probably right through the head, and killed instantly, at which time he probably slumped over the stick pushing the plane into the ground. If that guess of ours was correct then he felt no pain at all. The most he could have had would be about one second of pain. He undoubtedly never really knew what happened. I hope his lack of pain will ease you some. It was probably due to enemy rifle fire. We don't know for certain however. It happened through no fault of his or anyone else. It is one of those misfortunes of war.
      I have told you about everything that I know about it. I have spared no details and have not resisted my better judgement in mentioning localites. I, therefore, ask of you but one favor. Please keep this letter as much a secret as possible till after the war, as I have perhaps violated a few regulations to give you the complete picture.
      You have my sincere sympathy and my earnest hope that this has brought some comfort to you.
Capt. Charles E. Dills, 301 Valencia Way, Fort Myers, Florida.

      This picture of an A-36 with bombs looks like it was photographed at Pomigliano. The mountain in the background may be Mt. Vesuvius. ---------------------------------------------------------->
      I like to think that this was my airplane. It had a series of bombs representing missions on the side of the cowl. And below it was the word "Judy". Unfortunately this name cannot be read.

      On the 17th, as I was taking off, my engine just about quit on me. I had two 500 pound bombs and a full load of gas and ammunition. I could just maintain 150 feet, full throttle with the wheels up. I was so low I had trouble locating the runway. There were buildings below so I didn't want to jettison the bombs. I came around to the left until I saw the runway and then turned away and set up for a landing. I didn't dare put the wheels down until the last moment because I would immediately start losing altitude and I might not make the runway! I finally got lined up for the final and everybody on the ground thought I was going to belly in on the bombs.
      At this point I should explain the landing gear. There were two fairing doors that came down first, then the landing gear would come down and then the fairing doors would come back up and lock.
      When I was sure I was going to make it to the runway, I put the gear down. The fairing doors came down, the gear came down, I hit the ground and then the fairing doors came up. At least that's what they told me. It was that close! This was 17th February, a date that will live in feardom!

      Our instructors back in the States were on the lookout for pilots that might be prone to do stupid things. They would then save that boy's life by washing him out. I suspect the washed out pilot didn't look at it that way but it was true. Occasionally, they failed to wash out someone who would later be killed.
      One of the other squadrons had a pilot whose name I have forgotten. I had landed at another field one day due to a small malfunction. While I was waiting for it to be fixed, this pilot came in for a landing. He was about to touch ground when the tower shot him a red flare because his gear wasn't down. He immediately poured the coal to it and went around and landed properly.
      Some time later he got back to our concrete runway with his bombs and pulled the same trick again. However, this time the bombs pulled him down and he landed on them and slid down the concrete runway and finally stopped. My crewchief said he watched it and wondered why it took him so long to get out of the plane. While he was watching, the tail wheel came down. Obviously he had forgotten the gear again and was trying to cover it up by putting the handle down after he was stopped. He then got out and when he got back by the tail, one of the bombs erupted. It had apparently cracked during the landing so it didn't explode but geysered out of the crack. He got burned and went to the hosptal.
      Later, he had a problem on a mission that prevented his gear from coming down. The tower cleared the field for a belly landing. He tried six times but could not get himself to set it down. He told the tower that he had changed his mind and was going to bail out of the plane over the Mediterranean instead. That was his decision to make.
      Apparently he went out to the shore west of Naples, called MayDay and bailed out. They found his chute twenty miles out to sea but no sign of him. He had gas, he had control, he should not have bailed out until the rescue craft was there. He had had his three strikes!

      I have had breathing problems all my life. I have already explained the origin, an accident when I was about three. When my nose would get "stuffed up" a bit more than usual, my Eustachian tube would not allow passage of air fast enough when changing altitude. It seemed to be worse when decending. It resulted in aerotitus media seven times, a stretching of the eardrum and breaking of blood vessels.
      Coming back from a mission one day I started to feel pain around six thousand feet. I finally had to pull out of formation and go back up to 6000'. I kept a benzedrine inhaler and a handkerchief in the right shin pocket of my flying suit and I worked at it until it opened up.
      At 4000' I had to do it again. And again at 2000' and finally I made it all the way down. I never even considered the possibility that I couldn't clear it and would have eventually had to come down and let the eardrum break. How could one fly with such excruciating pain?

      The 99th Squadron was the black squadron from Tuskegee Alabama. They were not considered competent to lead their own missions, so they were attached to a white squadron who supplied the leaders. I heard several stories that I'm positive were not true, probably from guys from the south.
      Then Col. Benjamin O. Davis formed the 332nd Fighter Group. They were outfitted with P-39's and did Coastal Patrol, based near Naples, Italy. One day two of them were dogfighting at medium altitude, probably 4-6000 feet. One of them cut the tail off the other and sent him into a flat spin. We watched as the pilot bailed out. The plane seemed to be coming down so slowly that we wondered whether it or the parachute was going to hit the ground first. Actually, the plane did come down faster but it did seem to be coming down unbelievably slowly. They say that when it hit the ground a stump went through one wing and it hit absolutely flat! If the pilot stayed in he might have survived although he probably would have had a compression fracture of the spine.

      One of the squadron pilots was a boy from Oklahoma, Robert Fromm. He was up north of Rome one day and spotted a truck. He went down to strafe it and it exploded right in front of him. It blew him off course and right through a tree. He was already heading upward so he jettisoned the canopy and prepared to bail out. The plane got to 900 feet and he noticed the engine seemed to being running all right so he decided to wait before bailing out. It was difficult to control and wouldn't go faster than 160 mph or get more than 900' altitude. He got it turned around and headed south. His course took him right over Gaeta Point, one of the hottest flak spots around. He put-putted over Gaeta at 900 feet and 160 mph. Apparently the gunners could not believe he was so low and slow and they shot way out in front and he escaped without further injury!
      He decided he would bail out when he saw the first boat since we controlled the water. When he got to the first boat, he saw another. And another and another. He leapfrogged all the way back the the base and came in for a landing. His antenna had been knocked off so there could be no communicaton. His right wheel came down, but not the left so they shot him a red flare. He poured the coal to it and went out over the hills. He got it turned around somehow and came back the other way. This time they just let him land. The gear was rather wide so it was common to touch one wheel down first and then you would set the other one down. He said that when the right wheel touched, he went to put the left one down and he quickly realized that he didn't have a left wheel. So he held the left wing up as long as possible. It finally sank down, touched the ground and the plane slid in a slow arc till it stopped. pointing about 30 degrees to the left. There were twigs, etc stuffed up the gun barrels. If he had tried to use them they probably would have exploded. He had a piece of a 5 inch limb jamming the left gear.
      He was shot down and killed later, after I left the group.

      I have what I might call a "floating" memory. I don't know when it was or where. The only thing I remember is that we were a formation of eight planes, climbing slowly toward a ridge. With the two 500 lb bombs we were were climbing slowly trying not to use such power as would burn a lot of gas. As we approached the ridge we encountered a downdraft that we didn't expect. Suddenly it became clear we would not clear the ridge. We were apparently heading into a wind that came over the ridge which produced a strong downdraft that wouldn't let us clear the ridge. We had to jettison our bombs and abort the mission. What an odd and totally detached memory!

      I had a great crewchief, named "Tiny" Hunter. I believe he was from Albuquerque. One of my greatest regrets is that I don't ever remember thanking him for keeping me alive. I have been thanking every crewchief I ever met since, in lieu of that!
      He worked on that plane and he worked on that plane. I went out several times a day to find out how things were going. And in his quiet, abbreviated way he would say, "Not yet!".
      Finally on the 22nd he had exhausted everything he could think of and he said, "OK".
      So I decided to take it up for a test hop! I went up to fifteen or so thousand feet and it seemed to be working GREAT! I tried a a few shallow dives and finally a more typical mission type dive.
      As I was pulling out of this dive, the canopy came off. We had what is often called a greenhouse type of canopy. It was in three parts, two movable and one fixed. The fixed part was on the right. The other two were hinged. One came over the top and met the other hinged part. While pulling out of this last dive, the hinges let go, the canopy came off and was sucked down into the cockpit as it went by. It hit me on the head and I don't remember much after that.
      I do remember a moment when I was aware of flying straight and level with the rushing air of the open cockpit. I found my way back to the field somehow and came in for a landing. When one lands, one sets it up and glides toward the end of the runway. The lower you get, the more you raise the nose and decrease your descent. It's called leveling off and you continue losing speed until you finally touch the ground, set the tail down, then roll along, slowing down until you can turn off on a taxiway.
      I didn't do that! I came down in the glide and never leveled off. I hit the runway still in the glide, bounced forty feet in the air, stalled out and came down on the left wing tip. At least that's what they told me. This slewed me to the left, the plane slammed down on the ground and tore off the right landing gear. The prop hit the ground and broke off at the reduction gear and walked off across the field, slashing the left wing as it went by. The plane then slid along on the left gear, the right wingtip and tailwheel, slowing to a stop. It was about this time that I became aware of what was happening. I ducked my head down and shoved the stick to the upper left corner with my arm around my head. Everything seemed red and I thought I might be on fire. But it was what we call "red-out", the opposite of blackout. In a blackout, the blood is being pulled out of your head and things appear black and you can easily pass out if it is prolonged. It's what happened in a P-40 in advanced flying school the first time I tried a loop.
      In the picture to the right, you can just make out Vesuvius rising over the cowl. My crewchief, Tiny Hunter from Albuquerque, is leaning into the cockpit to take out the clock. The clock and the rear view mirror were highly prized and the first things rescued after the pilot!
      But this time I was slowing down and the forces pushed blood to my head and the extra blood in my eyeballs is what was making everything appear red.
      I remember thinking as I slid, "I'll never be able to tell them where the canopy went".
      Eventually it stopped and the extra adrenalin gave me a feeling of intense rage. I started turning off the switches, swearing every word I knew at the top of my lungs. I was mad as hell!! When the switches were off, I undid the radio and seat belt and shoulder straps, stood up and released the leg clasps on my parachute, stepped out of the cockpit onto the wing, took off the parachute, lifted it over my head, slammed it back in the cockpit and still swearing a blue streak, stomped down the right wing to the ground. By that time, of course, the fire wagon and ambulance were there and the two enlisted men were trying to coax me into the back of the ambulance. The fire truck started to spray the plane and I started screaming again, "Get my parachute out of there before you spray it!" I was very small and it was probably the only chute on the field that would fit me. And fit is very important, particularly if you ever wanted to have children!!

      The airplane name "Judy" was given her by a former pilot who wouldn't fly without a certain picture of Judy Garland on the instrument panel. The painting of bombs on the cowl had long since ceased.
      I finally got in the ambulance and one of them gave me a cigarette. It was probably the best one I ever smoked. They took me to the med tent so the Doc could look me over. He found nothing wrong but said he wanted to give me an eye check in the morning. I left.
      It was mid afternoon and now I began to feel a little shaky, probably an aftereffect of the adrenalin. There was a medical ration of Old Overholt Whiskey (we called it "Old Overshoes"). We were entitled to one shot after each mission. But since we couldn't have it if we were going to fly another mission that day they devised an alternate way of giving it to us. We couldn't keep a complicated set of books for this so instead, they issued us a chit with numbers. And every evening in the bar, certain numbers were honored. But you couldn't use more than three in any one night.
      There was an officer in charge of this and all other recreational activities. I went to his "office" and as I remember he had a Dutch door. The top half was open. He was sitting there and I said, "I just crashed my plane and I need some of that medical ration." He got a bottle and a water glass and set it on the little counter and said, "Help yourself!" I took probably a couple shots, went back home and went to bed and slept till the next morning.

      And then there was the depth perception test. This was usually two dowels, probably about a half inch in diameter. One was fixed and the other on a movable block controlled by strings. The whole thing was in a box with about a four inch square hole in it and painted white. We could only see the middle part of the dowels. We would grab the strings and then pull the movable one back and forth until we thought it was just opposite the fixed one. They had a scale in the box and we were supposed to be able to pull the strings back and forth and set it so that the difference was 25 mm (one inch) or less.
      I pulled the strings, and set them and the doc called out, "Forty eight mm!" I did it again and he said, "Forty five mm!". Now I was worried that maybe something had really happened and I sat there staring at the pegs.
      Finally, I turned to the doc and said, "Are those pegs different sizes?" He just beamed and said, "Yes!" I did it three more times, all less than 10 mm.
      As a result I realized that this was the first and only time my depth perception was really tested. What we had been doing was comparing the relative size of the pegs and even Wiley Post could have done that!
      This time, since the pegs were different diameters I had to use depth perception.

      I might mention that the pictures of the crashed plane were taken by our Engineering Officer, Capt. Joe Glover.

      I recently received the accident report from this crash. I had never seen it before. I suspect this is a typical accident report. To me, it appears to discount the pilot's account of the accident in order to place the blame on the pilot.

      They assign 75% of the cause to pilot error, citing the misuse of the flaps. I "woke up" while sliding across he ground. To me there was 0% pilot error. How could an essentially unconcious pilot be responsible for the crash.
      Take a look at the closeup of the wingtip, extracted from the above picture. It does not appear to me that it has been "dragged" on the ground. It appears to me that it has been landed on. It hit the runway in a strong bank as was described to me by other observers. I have no recollection of the event!
      I was not stunned "for a few minutes" but probably at least fifteen minutes, all the way back, through the "landing" until I was sliding across the ground.

      They are supporting the insulting conclusion that I made that up to exculpate my actions.

      The document is hard to read. But this is my "translation" of it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
      "While on a test flight, the canopy on Lt. Dills' ship came off striking him on the head, stunning him for a few minutes. Immediately after this happened Lt. Dills came in to land; he said everything he did from then on seemed to be wrong. He landed with full flaps and the fairly strong crosswind caught him and bounced him off the runway. Giving it the throttle he dragged a wingtip. Then seeing he was coming close to parked airplanes he cut the throttle and let the ship crash.

      It is believed that the accident was caused by 25% material failure due to the canopy coming off and striking the pilot on the head, and 75% pilot error due to the fact that he didn't take into consideration the crosswind when landing. After the doctor's examination there were no injuries of the head to be found; however the pilot could have been stunned for a few minutes after the canopy came off.

      Yes, some of the pilots got into weird beliefs related to luck, rituals that they dared not break. I was told one pilot would not fly without a certain ring. And one day he didn't come back and his tentmates found the ring on a box by his bed. Such observatons made believers out of others.
      Another pilot got so wound up in ritual that he would get out of the jeep with his parachute, walk to the airplane in a fixed way, walk around the plane in a certain path making observations of the plane (preflight), climb up on the wing putting his feet in certain places, climb into the cockpit in a fixed way, fasten the straps, belts and radio in a certain order. And if he screwed up he would get out of the plane go back to where he got out of the jeep and repeat the whole thing! I don't remember having any such hangups myself.