Enlisting in the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor, George HW Bush was piloting a bomber in 1944 when intense anti-aircraft fire caused his plane to catch fire. Despite a burning airplane, Bush managed to complete his attack, bombing his target and scoring several damaging hits. With his aircraft still on fire, the young pilot made sure all others aboard bailed out before he, too, finally jumped. He then waited in the shark-inhabited waters of the Pacific for hours in an inflated raft, before being rescued by the submarine USS Finback.
In later years, he would suffer charges of being a “wimp,” contrasted against the mighty Ronald Reagan, who spent the entire war stateside making several Hollywood movies.
BILL
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