Milk Run - Epilog

Like I said, the plane never flew again. The next day, my crew chief came around and told me about what they'd found.

The four embedded sparrow air to air missiles had more than one hundred pieces of shrapnel in them, but none had caused them to explode. For the most part, the 37mm shell had exploded downward, or early, if it was a proximity (but I don't think they had those). It came within a foot of blowing the left main gear off. It took out most of the hydraulics on the left side (good concept - redundancy), somehow the left main had worked in the gravity/pneumatic mode. The leading edge flap was severed and the aileron and spoilers were inop.

He also handed me a pound of lead which was the top of a 37mm shell, which he had found somewhere in the leading edge of the wing. I use it to this day for a paperweight on my desk. You can see how the detonating mechanism is mis-aligned. This has been a constant reminder of that day and how the good Lord had His hand upon me, even though I didn't have a clue.