Gimps?

This is coolbert:

From my previous blog entry on Tammy Duckworth:

"With regard to military flying, 'she hopes to get re-accredited to fly helicopters some day. Military cockpits, by regulation, cannot be modified for her prostheses, so she would have to find some other way to pass the physicals and flight tests'."

In the case of MODERN military pilots, having a prostheses would mean an end to your career. Period! NO WAY around it.

There is precedent, however, for military pilots, even with prostheses, to resume their flying careers, engage in combat, and DO WELL. Extremely well in two cases.

One such pilot is the famous Hans Ulrich Rudel. The "Eagle of the East". The most decorated German military man of the conflict [World War Two]. Perhaps the most decorated soldier of any military from that war. A man of the most protean accomplishments on the battlefield.




A man who when badly wounded, at the end of the war, and losing his right leg below the knee, was fitted with a prostheses and returned to combat, with vigor and valor!!

"In November 1944 he was wounded in the thigh and flew subsequent missions with his leg in a plaster cast."

"On 8th February 1945, his aircraft was hit by a 40mm shell and Rudel was badly wounded in the right foot, crash landing behind German lines. His life was saved by his observer who stemmed the bleeding but Rudel's leg was amputated below the knee. Amazingly, he returned to operations on 25 March 1945, destroying 26 more tanks before the end of the war."

Hans Ulrich was a HELLUVA MAN!!

Another pilot that distinguished himself in combat, prostheses or no prostheses, was the British flyer Douglas Bader.



Having suffered the loss of both legs in a pre-war flying accident, Bader, at the height of the Battle of Britain, was allowed to resume his flying career, COMMANDING and distinguishing himself in aerial combat, shooting down twenty two German aircraft.

"Bader is upheld as an inspirational leader and hero of the era, not least because he fought despite having lost both legs in a pre-war flying accident. His brutally forthright, dogmatic and often highly opinionated views (especially against authority) coupled with his boundless energy and enthusiasm inspired adoration and frustration in equal measures with both his subordinates and peers."

"His plane crashed when the tip of the left wing touched the ground. Bader was rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, where both his legs were amputated - one above and one below the knee."

"Although he was still able to fly with artificial legs, he was invalided out of the RAF."

Bader was not one to stay out of the fray when WW2 broke out. To the contrary.

"When war broke out in 1939, Bader used his RAF Cranwell connections to rejoin the RAF, despite his disability and reticence on the part of the establishment. His persistence in trying to regain a medical categorization for operational flying finally succeeded and led to a Flight Commander posting to 222 Squadron, flying Spitfires."

"By August 1941, Bader had claimed 22 German planes shot down, the fifth highest total in the RAF. On August 9, 1941 Bader was shot down and taken prisoner . . . As he tried to bail out, one of his prosthetic legs became trapped in the aircraft, and he only escaped when the leg's retaining straps broke."

"It was thought that Bader's success as a fighter pilot was partly due to having no legs; pilots pulling high 'G' in combat turns often 'blacked out' as the flow of blood from the brain drained to other parts of the body- usually the legs. As Bader had no legs he could remain conscious that much longer and thus had an advantage over more able-bodied opponents."

[this is just amazing. His abilities as a fighter pilot MIGHT HAVE BEEN ENHANCED DUE TO THE FACT THAT HE DID NOT HAVE LEGS!! This gave HIM AN ADVANTAGE OVER 'able-bodied opponents'.]

WHOA!!

"Bader was captured by German forces, who treated him with great respect. General Adolf Galland, a German flying ace, notified the British of his damaged leg and offered them safe passage to drop off a replacement. The British responded on 19 August 1941 with the 'Leg Operation'- an RAF bomber was allowed to drop a new prosthetic leg by parachute to St Omer, a Luftwaffe base in occupied France."

"Bader tried to escape from the hospital where he was recovering, and over the next few years proved as big a thorn in the side of the Germans as he had been to the RAF establishment. He made so many attempts at escape that the Germans threatened to take away his legs."

"After returning to England, Bader stayed in the Air Force until February 1946. In June 1945, he was given the honour of leading a victory flypast of 300 aircraft over London . . . Bader resumed playing golf, an enthusiasm developed after his amputation, achieving a handicap in the low single figures."

"Bader's artificial legs are on display at the RAF Museum at Stafford"

"In 1976 Bader was knighted for his services to amputees and his public work for the disabled."

Douglas Bader too was one HELLUVA MAN!!

Hans Ulrich Rudel and Douglas Bader make the rest of us seem small by comparison!!

coolbert.