Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

GET WISE
Here are a few of the easily avoided mishaps that are costing the AAF many lives,
limbs and manhours~ Gel wise: you can pay for mistakes like these with your life
Case I. Some people should never he gi\Tn
a knife, Thcvrc hound to hurt themselves.
Take the C( in It.rlv, for inst.mcc. Instead
of pluuging his i"u~ knife into a German
hcllv, he sent it into hi, own. Not intcntrouallv,
of course. lIe wasn't committing
harakiri. I lc \\as mcrclv tn'ing to make a
hole in some leather. Placing the butt of the
knife on the table, he pressed the leather
agaimt the point. Darned if that knife
didn't go right through the leather and into
the soldier's alxlominul \\',111. To repair the
damage, a surgicil unit required an hom-
:m hom of v.iluublc time which could h.ivc
heen gi\Tn men woun.k«] in action.
Case II. l'erh:lps the four officer" \\']10
were: riding :1 Jeep in :'\ornLuHh', couldn't
rc:«]. It's !I:ml to bel inc thcv would be
tool ish elJ()(lgh to disregard the' ,ign which
in plain Jitll;lish w.uuccl : "Shonlders 'Ill' not
free of mines," The quartet \\as tLI\cling
a r ur.il road, \\hen for some reason t hcv decilled
to turn b:llk. The dr ivcr S\\'lm~ out
on the shouldcr of the road and ,ill t h.it sett~ed
to earth after the explosion \\'as clu-,t.
The gran' registration men arc st ill looking
for the dog Llgs.
Case III. The grolmd crcwm.m \\':IS :1 goodlooking
1')\c,Ir;,ld kid. But he isn't goodlooking
'111\' more, Ix-c.m:«. he didn't usc his
head. I Ie decided to make a cigarette
lighter from a 2iJ nn u shell. fignring the
gadget would he a nice souvenir. After rcmOl'ing
the projectile, he found the w.nlding
\\'as p'lCked tighth', Picking at it with
OCTOBER,1944
By LT. COl. GEORGE S. RICHARDSON, Me
9th ;\ir Force
his knife didn't seem to do much good, so
he hghtly tapped the base of the shell.
Sometime later, he wokc up in a field hospital.
lie couldn't sec, and his hands and
car hurt him. I Ic didn't realize innncdurtclv
that both eves had been blinded bv casing
fragments, t'hat both hands and part of one
car were gone and that his face would al-
\\'al'S carrv blue scars from the shower of
eXI;loding' powder p,nticles. I Ic knows all
about it now. I lc knOll'S also that fooling
with .uuunmit ion is d'lngerollS, Hnt l,e got
\\'ise too late,
Case IV. Clean clothes 'He nice, but there's
a hmit to the price a man should p:I\' to get
them. ,\ line chief in .\fricl 1(;1(1a \\hale of
a !a II11(1rv hill-the torture of infected bums
for ,!a\'s' and nights on end, six months in
the hovpit.tl and ngh' SCIrS for life. Clc.ming
facilities weren't \'(T\' good in the desert. so
t he line chief \\'ashe;l his «over.rll. and pants
in a bucket of gasoline. It \\'as uufort un.itc
t kit a spark from a cig,nette tonthcd off the
Iumcs. but luckv for him that a B,2-f crew
lIas \\'illing to risk a flight through a s.mdstorm
to get him to a geneLil hospital in
time to sa\'(' his life. lIe's home now. but
he'd LIther be b.ick on t lic line, keeping
t ho:«- planes in shape to speed the victorv.
Case V. "Don't point" is a rule \\llieh
.ipplic« to oflclutv gllnh'lndling :IS well 'IS it
docs to soei,il bch.ivior. Fvcrv soldier h:ls
been told time and 'lg:I;n never to point a
glm 'It .uivonc he doesn't intend to shoot.
.Vn .\.\1,' man in Fr.mrc disregardcd the rule
to his SO!TOI\'. Pla\inf; '\,;ldier" with a
gronp of lrcnch yonilgsters, he "eh:Irgcd" 'It
them wit l: his cnrbinc. Apparcntlv the
,,:!fet\' \\:IS off, for the piece \\:IS tired, and a
1 )'n':nold bov lIas shot throngh the .ilxlomen.
The kid lived oulv bcc.ru:«: a ticld liovpit.r!
\\,:IS 'It h:1I1d '111
II'IlIds sll'Ittered In' snicid:Il f;rellade explosions,
It \\'IS a gren:lde t hut did the job Oil
the Sen'ice Croup hov, too. Bnt it w.ixu']'
t lrrown bv the cncuiv. 'lli« "duel" he had
picked nl; proved to he .tlivc. I Ie \\"IS flowu
to a gcner:Il hospil:d wlur« the h.md :111(1
part of his forearm \\Tre .unput.rtcd. The
bO\'s ill l,is outfit "lid: "Too b.id :lbollt [oc.
,\ good gu\' like him didn't deserve such
luck.' But it w.ivu'! luck. It \\':lS sheer curelessness.
IIc'l1 wcar a prosthdic li.mr] the
rest of his life. 1::
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