Safe at Last

Parachuting down from a dogfight and head-on crash in the Guadalcanal sector, Lieut. Henry E. Matson opened his eyes and said: "Safe at last." Then . . .

"There I was right on the fifty-yard line of the darndest dogfight you ever saw. Zeros and American planes were thicker than flies at suppertime. They were all shooting -- seemed to be shooting at me. My burns weren't hurting much, but I was pretty sure they would after a while, so I pulled out my first-aid kit and had myself a shot of morphine. I worked my way down out of the dogfights and was ready to say 'safe at last' again, when three Zeros came down on me.

"I tell you, that's a terrible feeling swinging there as helpless as a turkey with his neck on the block. You feel like you've got targets painted all over you. I waved vigorously, jutting out my teeth at them to look like Tojo, and making other gestures of friendship and victory. I grinned and jabbered at them."

At this, the Japanese stopped shooting. Lieut. Matson hit the water, inflated his rubber raft, climbed aboard it, covered himself with his parachute, went to sleep. An hour later, a crash boat rescued him.

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