I looked at my flight leader. He was signaling a turn to the right. He turned sharply to the right. Our whole formation turned with him. We were heading directly into the oncoming attack of the other formation.
Just as I straightened out of my turn my ship lurched violently and I got a fleeting impression of something passing over my head. I couldn’t figure out what had happened. My leader was signaling for another turn. I followed him through several quick turns in rapid succession. We were dodging the enemy formation. I kept trying to figure out what had happened when my ship had lurched.
Then it occurred to me: Somebody in the attacking formation, when the formation had been diving head on into ours, had pulled up just in time to keep from hitting me head on. I had passed under him and immediately behind him as he pulled up, and the turbulent slip stream just back of his ship was what had caused my ship to lurch.
I felt weak all over. God, how close he must have come, I thought!
Later, on the ground, we stood around our instructors, listening to criticism of our flying. I wasn’t listening very much. I was looking around at the faces of the other students. I saw another student looking around too. It was Lindbergh. He had been flying in the attacking formation. After the criticism was over I walked up to Lindbergh.
“Say,” I said, “did you come close to anybody in that head-on attack?”
He grinned all over.
“Yes,” he said. “Was that you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see me?” he asked.