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2d Lt. John C. Morgan - Medal of Honor citation......


MORGAN, JOHN C. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 326th Bomber Squadron, 92d Bomber Group. Place and date: Over Europe, 28 July 1943. Entered service at: London, England. Born: 24 August 1914, Vernon, Tex. G.O. No.: 85, 17 December 1943.

Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, while participating on a bombing mission over enemy-occupied continental Europe, 28 July 1943. Prior to reaching the German coast on the way to the target, the B17 airplane in which 2d Lt. Morgan was serving as copilot was attacked by a large force of enemy fighters, during which the oxygen system to the tail, waist, and radio gun positions was knocked out. A frontal attack placed a cannon shell through the windshield, totally shattering it, and the pilot's skull was split open by a .303 caliber shell, leaving him in a crazed condition. The pilot fell over the steering wheel, tightly clamping his arms around it. 2d Lt. Morgan at once grasped the controls from his side and, by sheer strength, pulled the airplane back into formation despite the frantic struggles of the semiconscious pilot. The interphone had been destroyed, rendering it impossible to call for help. At this time the top turret gunner fell to the floor and down through the hatch with his arm shot off at the shoulder and a gaping wound in his side. The waist, tail, and radio gunners had lost consciousness from lack of oxygen and, hearing no fire from their guns, the copilot believed they had bailed out. The wounded pilot still offered desperate resistance in his crazed attempts to fly the airplane. There remained the prospect of flying to and over the target and back to a friendly base wholly unassisted. In the face of this desperate situation, 2d Lt. Officer Morgan made his decision to continue the flight and protect any members of the crew who might still be in the ship and for 2 hours he flew in formation with one hand at the controls and the other holding off the struggling pilot before the navigator entered the steering compartment and relieved the situation. The miraculous and heroic performance of 2d Lt. Morgan on this occasion resulted in the successful completion of a vital bombing mission and the safe return of his airplane and crew.


.......Sound familiar?

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Yeah definitely familair! All I can say is...I guessed from watching the film that this was based on real life....who could make up something like that? I have the deepest respect and admiration for those crews. Their battles were the scariest and hardest of the war I think. I mean, any soldier in a ground battle has something of a choice about when he can expose himself to enemy but fire...but up in the -40 degree heights of Mt. Everest, these men could only watch enemy planes come at them, knowing the skin of their planes could be shoved through with a screwdriver...the rounds coming at them (20mm cannon, 88mm flak, etc.)would blow them apart, and there only defense was the .50 cal guns in there hands, and the rugged plane around them. Never before or since has any group of men been able to dpend not only on each other...but on their plane to survive. Lucky for them, their planes were the toughest, most redundant machines ever concieved...

I remember hearing about a waist gunner who survived a strafing run, only to see his friends' head split open by a round. He took his gloves off to stop the bleeding, and saving the man's life, though he had to have his ahnds amputated from frost-bite. Any more stories...be sure to post them!

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Good job of reasearch. All these years I never even thought that it could have been based on a true incident. I went back and read the citation at http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm. Another great website is http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/. Not too much to do with this movie but we need to remember that the cost of freedom is continuous. HOO-AAH!

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True, Jesse Bishop's Medal of Honor was based on John "Red" Morgan's experience. Lieutenant Morgan later became Captain Morgan and was the pilot of a "pathfinder" B-17 on March 6, 1944, leading the second mission to Berlin. His plane was hit by flak in the fuel tanks and exploded, killing all but three, one of whom was Red Morgan, who became a POW for the rest of the war. 68 other bombers were lost that day, the single deadliest day in 8th Air Force history.

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I have a website on Medal of Honor Recipients whose actions have been depicted in the movies. It's at
http://www.voicenet.com/~lpadilla/mohintro.html

Since John C. Morgan was fictionalized as Jesse Bishop, my writeup on him can be found on the "Notable Fiction" page.

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