Bill Bruce on Forest Patrol

by Henry Harley Arnold

Bill climbed over the side of the fusilage, being very careful while doing so not to increase the probability of the chute opening by giving it any unnecessary motion. He reached the top step safely and then stepped down to the lower one. From that position he could see that the streaming shroud lines were inside of the elevator horn and that it would take some little maneuvering to get them clear.

From Bill’s point of view there was but one way to do it. Somehow or other he must work his way back to the tail group and throw those shroud lines clear. He looked around to see how it might be done. To climb back on top of the fusilage was out of the question, as that would make it practically impossible to throw the chute clear. The only other method was for him to work his way back along the control cables which ran alongside the fusilage.

Bill immediately bent down and grasped the control cable with his right hand, while he held on to the fusilage with his left. When he was sure that he had a secure grip, he released his left hand and grasped the cable with it. At the same instant his foot slipped from the lower step and he found himself hanging from the control wire. The force of his fall had caused the cable to cut his hands severely, but he held on just the same.

In the meantime, while watching Bill, Smith was thinking out a method whereby he could so throw the plane through the air that the shroud lines would be cleared of the elevator horn. He thought that it might be done by slipping the plane through the air. During such a motion the plane would not have the same resistance to the air as the chute and might possibly move away from the chute. When that time came, Bill could drop with some degree of safety.

Thus it was that both Smith and Bill started working with the same end in view. Bill worked his way backward toward the tail group, stopping every once in a while to try and throw the shroud lines clear with one hand while he retained his grip on the cable with the other. Smith put the plane into a steep side slip and watched the parachute to see what effect the sideward motion of the plane was having.

Several times Smith slipped the plane with no apparent results. Meanwhile Bill Bruce was working his way farther and farther to the rear of the fusilage. Finally Bill reached a point within a few feet of the leading edge of the stabilizer. Here he again tried to throw the shroud lines clear with one free hand. Smith at the same time put the plane into an almost vertical slip. The shroud lines moved across the surfaces, jumped the horn and strung out clear of the plane.

As soon as he saw that the shroud lines were clear, Bill dropped off into space. The crowd on the ground saw all of these maneuvers, but could not imagine the reason for their taking place. They saw the streaming chute and knew that it should not be that close to the plane. They also saw that Bill was still in the cockpit when he should have been clear of the ship. None knew the perilous situation which confronted the two airmen. Everyone, however, realized that something had gone wrong and that the two men were fighting for their lives.

When Bill dropped from the plane, as far he could see, none of the rules and instructions which Sergeant Ruhs had given him before going into the air could possibly be put into effect. In the first place, one parachute was already open and it was not necessary to count three. Then, again, it would do no good to pull the ring of that chute now, no matter how hard he pulled it. Ruhs had said that the chutes always open. Would this one open or should he pull on the ring to open the other chute?

Bill had a hard time to think logically while falling through space with the string-like parachute streaming down after him. He was afraid that, as his body tumbled around while falling, the first parachute would wrap itself around the second one and keep it from opening. That being the case, the sooner he pulled the rip cord on the second chute, the better off he would be.

It was fortunate that Smith had climbed to about twenty-five hundred feet before giving Bill the signal to jump. Otherwise things might not have turned out so well for Bill. They had lost about five hundred feet while trying to get the chute clear of the tail group, and then Bill had fallen another thousand feet before he tried to open the second chute.