Nothing Can Happen To Me On My Birthday

On February the 11th of ’45, we were doing a low level raid on a bridge on the Burma Siam railroad. Interviewer: Your birthday.Yeah, I hadn’t, I had forgotten it was my birthday until it comes up in the story. It was late in the afternoon and we were flying due south on this railroad and down the Isthmus of Kra. The railway station and the bridge is here. We were dropping the bomb short and they’d skip along the railway tracks and then jam into the bank on the other side under the tracks and blow them up that way. They had a delay on the bomb. But as you flew by the railway station, there was a great flash right at the side of the cockpit, the left hand side. And I thought, you know, this is it. And then I thought, your mind races. Why, I was thinking of home, my family. They’re going to get the news. What day is this? My God, it’s my birthday. I thought, nothing can happen to me on my birthday. I remember having that wonderful feeling - nothing can happen to me on my birthday. Then I realized it was the sun going down. It was reflected off the glass at front of the railway station. That was the flash that I saw that I thought was an explosion. But the thought I had was, nothing can happen to me on my birthday, was the reaction. It was an interesting reaction. I thought afterwards, myself, that was an interesting reaction.Interviewer: What was your closest call? Gosh, I guess you never really know. It may have been in civilian life. I got hit by a car twice when I was a kid. I got hit by a train once on my bike, you know. So they probably were closer than if I was in the military.