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Category: A Victory!
The Baker family was about to sell their property when a criminal hid in their home. They were not prepared for what came next.
KALISPELL, Mont.—Vicki Baker was ready to close the sale of her house in McKinney, Texas, in July four years ago. She and her new husband were settling into a new home in Montana. Her daughter, Deanna Cook, lived in the McKinney house pending the sale closing.
She said the future seemed as bright and boundless as the view from her Montana mountaintop home.
On July 25, 2020, the sale was canceled, the house had more than $50,000 in damage courtesy of the McKinney Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, and a fugitive was lying dead in what had been Baker’s master bedroom.
Baker and the public interest law firm Institute for Justice have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her claim that the damage constitutes a taking under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As such, the city would be obligated to provide Baker just compensation for the damage.
The city of McKinney denies that it owes Baker anything because the police were legally exercising their power while responding to an emergency. McKinney appears to have legal precedent on its side.
“Our appellate counsel will be responding in opposition to Ms. Baker’s request to the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of her case,” Denise Lessard, McKinney’s senior media & public relations manager, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
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However, Jeffrey Redfern, who is representing Baker, said the lower courts got it wrong. He said those courts claim to have found exceptions to the takings clause where none are listed.
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He pointed out that when the Fifth Amendment was written, the United States had no professional law enforcement agencies.
“So I think the idea that, you know, James Madison, when he was drafting this would have thought that there was an unwritten sort of secret exception for a type of government officer, that he couldn’t have even imagined yet, is pretty far out there,” he told The Epoch Times.
Redfern said the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that the Constitution requires payment for property damage under the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause.
The takings clause states, “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
In its petition, the Institute for Justice stated that such compensation should be considered an expense of providing public safety.
“As a society, we pay for police salaries, training, equipment, and the cost of running a criminal justice system. We should also pay for the damage that the police must sometimes inflict on innocent property owners,” the Institute for Justice’s petition reads.
Vicki Baker looks through the almost $60,000 in receipts for repairs she had to make to her house after the 2020 raid by the McKinney Police SWAT team. Michael Clements/The Epoch Times
Redfern said the raid on Baker’s property was just as much a taking as if the city had demolished the house to make way for a road. This concept has been enshrined in Supreme Court decisions as far back as 1871, he said.
“The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in a pretty famous case involving the building of a dam that when the government destroys private property physically, that’s also a taking,” Redfern said.
Baker said her ordeal began when her phone rang on that Saturday afternoon in 2020. She was in Montana when her daughter, Cook, called to tell her that a SWAT team had surrounded the McKinney house.
Baker’s former part-time handyman, Wesley Little, had barricaded himself in the home with a 15-year-old girl. Cook relayed the seriousness of the situation to her mother with an ominous statement.
“She said, ‘Mom, you don’t know how bad this man is,’” Baker told The Epoch Times.
Little released the teen, who told police he was armed and in no mood to surrender. Little told police negotiators the same thing. Eventually, the SWAT team decided to go in after the fugitive.
Before it was over, windows were broken, the garage door was smashed in, and everything in the house—walls, floors, and furniture—was saturated with tear gas.
Little kept his promise not to be taken alive by shooting himself in Baker’s bedroom.
“On my beautiful, beautiful, beautiful bed,” she said.
Baker is not the only Institute for Justice client left holding the bag after a SWAT team raid, according to Redfern.
Carlos Pena has owned and operated NoHo Printing and Graphic Design for more than 30 years. On Aug. 3, 2022, he was in the shop that he had leased in North Hollywood, California, for 13 years when he was confronted by a man running from U.S. Marshals, court records state.
Carlos Pena shows some of the damage done to his business by a Los Angeles SWAT team. Courtesy Institute for Justice
The fugitive knocked him to the ground and then ran into the shop. Stunned, Pena got up as the Marshals ordered him away from the building, according to court records.
“I didn’t realize exactly what was going on,” Pena told The Epoch Times. “I was out of it because you never think that this is going to happen to you.”
The Los Angeles police SWAT team was called to assist. The team raided the business using tactics similar to those used in McKinney.
Pena said that when it was over, his business had holes in the ceiling and walls. There were footprints on some of his equipment, and boxes of supplies were torn open, exposing the contents to tear gas that flooded the building. In court, he claimed that there had been $60,000 in damage.
“I saw all the work of my life thrown away,” Pena said.
The fugitive escaped, court records state.
Pena and Baker contacted their respective insurance companies and city officials for help with repair and cleanup costs.
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Baker’s home insurance provider, which she says was very sympathetic, said there was little she could do other than pay for cleaning up the blood from Little’s suicide. Most homeowner policies don’t cover damage sustained through government action.
The city’s insurance carrier, the Texas Municipal League, sent an Aug. 20, 2020, letter advising that neither the city nor any of its employees were responsible for the damage.
“The officers have immunity while in the scope and course of their job duties. For this reason, we must respectfully deny this claim in its entirety,” Yvonne Cantu, a claims specialist for the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool, wrote in the letter.
Interior damage sustained to Vicki Baker’s house in Texas during the 2020 raid by a SWAT team. Courtesy Deanna Cook
On March 3, 2021, Baker and the Institute for Justice sued the city in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Redfern said that after Judge Amos L. Mazzant denied the city’s request to dismiss Baker’s suit, the city offered her $50,000 to settle.
“Vicki was willing to settle the case, but only if the city adopted a policy to ensure that anyone in Vicki’s situation in the future would also be compensated,” Redfern said. “The city refused.”
Ultimately, Mazzant ordered the city to pay Baker $59,656.65.
The city appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed that ruling on Oct. 11, 2023.
“The city recognized the unique effects on Ms. Baker when it offered her the full amount of her damages. Regrettably, she rejected the city’s offer. However, we are pleased with the Fifth Circuit’s ruling,” Lessard wrote in her email to The Epoch Times.
Redfern agreed that police sometimes must damage property in emergency situations, as the Fifth Circuit court outlined in its ruling. However, he said violence is engaged in to protect society, not just the individual property owner.
“It’s not about wrongdoing [by police] … but what’s the fair way to allocate that [financial] burden? Is that something that society as a whole should bear? Or is it something that we dump on one random, innocent, unlucky homeowner?” Redfern asked.
Pena said that after the raid, he lost the lease on his store, most of his big clients, and almost all of his walk-in business. He now works from his garage doing whatever jobs he can get with second-hand equipment. His wife, who had retired, has gone back to work.
Los Angeles Police Department’s SWAT team and K9 officers prepare to rescue hostages on Dec. 13, 2017. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
“I’ve lost about 80 percent of my income,” Pena said.
In July 2023, Pena sued the city of Los Angeles over the raid. According to court records, city officials ignored his claims for compensation. In March, the court denied his claims on the basis that the police were engaged in a legitimate law enforcement action.
Pena said he hasn’t decided whether to appeal the ruling.
Ivor Pine, deputy director of communications for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office, declined an interview request.
“We do not comment on pending litigation,” Pine wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.
Pena, like Baker, doesn’t dispute the legitimacy of the police operation.
“The judge denied it, alleging that the SWAT team is immune because they were doing their job. So, in other words, it’s Carlos Pena’s [property], and so he has to pay. It’s ridiculous,” Pena said.
When asked whether he is concerned that a victory in Baker’s case could chill police responses to situations that may result in property damage, Redfern said he expects the opposite effect.
“When we’ve talked to police officers who’ve been involved in these cases, they have generally told us that they were under the impression that the property owner was going to get compensated,” he said.
“I think they would be more likely to hesitate if they knew that they were going to be visiting financial ruin on an innocent septuagenarian retiree who has no idea where she’s going to get the money to fix her house.”
SWAT teams advance through a parking lot after a gunman opened fire at a King Sooper’s grocery store in Boulder, Colo., on March 22, 2021. Chet Strange/Getty Images
What happens when a pervert tries to crawl through the bedroom window of a young woman in a Chicago neighborhood to do Lord knows what? Well, if mom’s got a gun and the knowledge, skills and proper attitude to use it to defend her daughter, Mr. Pervert won’t see any happy endings. Just such a scenario played out Saturday night in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
An unnamed man’s plans for a fun Saturday night came to a screeching halt as mama bear brought out Big Bertha and blasted the (fatherless man). While her shot didn’t offer taxpayer relief, it accomplished what the mom wanted: for the intruder to retreat.
He retreated alright, leaving a handy blood trail for police to follow. And surprise! They caught him and took him to the hospital before he ran out of red stuff.
Notably, the woman praised Chicago Police for their help and support.
At least the prosecutor on call declined to tell the cops to arrest and take the woman to jail, unlike the man attacked by a mob earlier this summer who shot three and was then arrested. Fortunately he was released prior to arraignment.
Mom now wants to move though, because she doesn’t feel safe. Especially since the police seized her gun for evidence. Who can blame her?
CHICAGO – A woman said she jumped into action Saturday night to protect her children as a man allegedly tried to break into their home in the city’s South Shore neighborhood.
Investigators quickly learned the man had allegedly tried to break into a nearby home and was shot by a woman who is a Concealed Carry License (CCL) holder.
According to the Chicago Police Department, officers responded to a report of a person shot around 10:45 p.m. in the 2300 block of East 69th Street. They found a man, initially believed to be the victim of a shooting, with a gunshot wound to his leg.
“I’m just super shaken up. I’m a single mom. I live here with my children, so that’s the last thing I expect, for someone to try and come in on my daughter,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told WGN News. “It’s just like a nightmare that came true.”
The woman told WGN News she had come home from celebrating her birthday with her family. Not long after, everything took a turn for the worst as her daughter was in the bathroom.
“While she was showering, a guy like put his hand through the window and she ran out, ‘Mom, somebody’s coming through my room, coming through my window,’” said the woman. “I just went into action and when I actually saw the guy, he was still hanging on her window and he just looked at me and I said, ‘I’ve got a gun, I’m going to shoot.’ I just fired a shot. I didn’t even know he was hit ’til the police came.”
The man, who has not yet been identified publicly by Chicago police, was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in fair condition.
Fortunately mom had the means with which to thwart the pervy perp’s attempted home invasion. The little girl was just coming out of the shower. It seems a little unlikely that Mr. Perp wanted to deliver some Girl Scout Cookies.
Idaho Hunters Survive Grizzly Attack
“It was lifting me off the ground and then slamming me back on the ground,” Hill said. “… It was like playing tug of war with your dog, but he was playing it with my arm and ripping it apart.”
Moments earlier, the bear had charged out of nowhere, dramatically altering a peaceful morning as the two hunters from Rexburg and Menan faced one of the fiercest predators in North America.
Hill dropped his archery bow, pulled a 10mm Springfield from the holster on his hip and shot the bear once in the right side.
“Grizzly bears don’t usually get off their target, but this one did,” Hill said. “This one turned looked right at me, and he’s charging, charging fast.”
The two friends were only about twelve feet apart from each other, and Meyers tripped and fell on the ground.
Hill had time to shoot the bear with three more bullets in the face and shoulder region before its iron jaws clamped down on his arm.
Immediately, the grizzly began to fling Hill around.
Meyers stood up and saw the bear attacking Hill.
He “fumbled around,” pulled out his Taurus 1911 .45 ACP pistol and fired four to five shots at the bear before the gun jammed.
Taurus. Jammed.
“(The bear) just kind of looked up at me, and I saw its eyes, and I just started (shooting),” Meyers said. “It put its head back down, and I shot some more (in the spine), and (that) did the trick.”
During one shot in the barrage, Hill felt the bear’s grip on his arm loosen slightly.
With his one free hand, Hill said he “ripped open that jaw, ripped my arm out, and then I remember I stood up, and I was freaking out. I didn’t know if the bear was coming after me again.”
He grabbed his gun off the ground and fired three more rounds at the grizzly’s head.
In total, the hunters shot 24 bear bullets at the grizzly to bring it down.
Idaho Fish and Game officers conducted a thorough investigation and determined that Hill and Braxton Meyer’s actions were justified.
The two friends learned later that local ranchers had long called that bear the “King of the Hill.”
“This bear has always been a problem up there of cattle, and there’s a lot of farmers that … (are) pretty happy with us because we took out the bear that was eating their cattle,” Hill said.
The bear was 20-years-old, an extraordinarily long life for a grizzly in the wild.
“It was a fighting bear,” Braxton Meyers said. “Another bear or some animal had torn one of its ears off. That was the ear that was facing up the hill, and so it didn’t hear us coming down until we were on the side that had the good ear, and that’s when it got up and come at us.”
The bear had been surprised while it was burrowing in a day bed.
“They’ll dig a hole, and they’ll pull brushes and scrub and whenever to hide them,” Hill said. “So we spooked it, and we weren’t trying to.”
“Magnum P.I.” ran for 162 episodes — 1980 through 1988. Not all episodes had Magnum discharging his Colt MKIV/Series 70 Government Model 1911, but Magnum shot a lot of bad guys with it. I recall this Magnum episode — with Thomas dispensing justice by extinguishing the life of a very bad man.
Although CBS reprised the series, I had no interest in watching it. Tom Selleck is Thomas Magnum. The reality is, if Magnum existed in present-day Oahu and discharged his weapon, even in self-defense, most of the series would have seen Magnum in jail or in court, because he would have been arrested by a bug-eyed police chief who seems to belong in New Zealand, not the USA. In 2024, if you discharge a gun defending yourself or those around you, you will be arrested. At least by this police chief.
The police chief of Honolulu was happy to announce that it didn’t matter if you have “license” to carry a gun and you are defending yourself and, in fact, stop a mass shooting on your own property you will be arrested for murder. A few days ago the following happened:
Three people were killed and two others injured in a shooting at a home stemming from a dispute between neighbors on Saturday night in Waianae, a west Oahu community. The shooter was also fatally shot by a resident, who was arrested on a second-degree murder charge, police said.
Police Chief Arthur Logan (he wants you to call him “Joe”) told the local paper that in the state of Hawaii and in his city, you cannot defend yourself based on “stand your ground” principles. He said:
“In Hawaii, we are a non ‘stand your ground’ state. Even if you have a license to carry, if you’re an individual that discharges a firearm that is involved in injuring another person, … you’re going to be arrested.”
Oh, ok Arthur. The Hawaii Penal Code begs to disagree with Mr. Logan:
§703-304 Use of force in self-protection. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section and of section 703-308, the use of force upon or toward another person is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary for the purpose of protecting himself against the use of unlawful force by the other person on the present occasion.
(2) The use of deadly force is justifiable under this section if the actor believes that deadly force is necessary to protect himself against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping, rape, or forcible sodomy.
(3) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (4) and (5) of this section, a person employing protective force may estimate the necessity thereof under the circumstances as he believes them to be when the force is used without retreating, surrendering possession, doing any other act which he has no legal duty to do, or abstaining from any lawful action.
Logan had the man arrested although it seems pretty clear that he killed a would-be mass-murderer and was defending himself and others. Logan had the man who stopped a mass-shooting arrested for “second-degree murder.” Logan seems like a man high on his own fumes. The days of “Magnum P.I.” are over. To repeat, “In Hawaii, we are a non ‘stand your ground’ state,” he said. “Even if you have a license to carry, if you’re an individual that discharges a firearm that is involved in injuring another person … you’re going to be arrested.” Arthur will have you handcuffed, perp-walked, booked, photographed for murder. Yes, the man who stopped a mass murder was eventually released, but he will forever be the guy “arrested for murder.”
Nothing like chilling a constitutional right, Arthur.
Short story.
My son had just returned from a deployment in Afghanistan. He and a buddy were with dates. It was 2:00 a.m. They crossed a street midstream and immediately were “lit up” by Honolulu cops for “jaywalking.”
My son was rightfully incensed and asked why he and his buddy were being cited for jaywalking at 2:00 a.m. “It’s dangerous,” replied the overweight cop to the two combat vets. As the cop was writing the citations, two prostitutes jaywalked in front to the cops. My son asked if they were going to cite the women-of-the night for the same thing. The cop just smiled and went back to writing the citations.
I’ve always thought that Hawaii was overrated. I have a choice where to spend my vacation dollars. Hawaii won’t be seeing any.
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Lt Col John Cary Morgan
United States Army Air Corps United States Air Force |
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Military photo of John C . Morgan
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| Nickname(s) | “Red” |
| Born | August 24, 1914 Vernon, Texas, US |
| Died | January 17, 1991 (aged 76) Papillion, Nebraska, US |
| Place of burial | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Service/ |
Royal Canadian Air Force United States Air Force |
| Years of service | 1941 – 1943 (Canada) 1943 – 1945, 1950 – 1953 (USA) |
| Rank | Sergeant (Canada) Lieutenant Colonel (USA) |
| Unit | 326th BS, 92nd BG |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | Medal of Honor Air Medal (3) |
John Cary “Red” Morgan (August 24, 1914 – January 17, 1991) was a United States Army Air Forces pilot in World War II who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during a 1943 bombing run over Germany, which also inspired the character of 2nd Lieutenant Jesse Bishop in the novel and film Twelve O’Clock High.
Background
Born August 24, 1914, in Vernon, Texas, son of attorney Samuel A. Morgan Sr. and Verna Johnson Morgan,[1] Morgan graduated from a military school in 1931 then attended several colleges, including Amarillo College, New Mexico Military Institute, West Texas State Teachers College, and the University of Texas at Austin. While at Texas he learned to fly aircraft, and in 1934 dropped out of college. He worked in the Fiji Islands as a foreman on a pineapple plantation until 1938, when he returned to enlist as an aviation cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps. However, because of his poor education record, he was refused enlistment. Working at an oil-drilling site for Texaco, Morgan suffered a broken neck in an industrial accident, and as a result was later classified 4-F by the Selective Service System.
Military service
In August, 1941, Morgan joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, and after completion of flight training in Saskatchewan, Ontario, and RAF Church Lawford, England, was posted as a Sergeant Pilot with RAF Bomber Command. On March 23, 1943, he was transferred to the U.S. Army Air Forces as a Flight Officer and assigned to the 92nd Bomb Group‘s 326th Bomb Squadron, RAF Alconbury, England.
Morgan, on his fifth U.S. mission, was co-pilot of a crew flying a B-17F, ser. no. 42-29802, to a target in Hanover, Germany, on July 26, 1943 (not July 28 as reported by his award citation below).[2] It was for his participation in this mission that he received the Medal of Honor (citation shown below in full), which was awarded on December 18, 1943.
Medal of Honor action
Morgan’s experience began as his group formation neared the German coast. The B-17, nicknamed Ruthie II, was attacked by a large number of Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters and had part of its oxygen system to the gunners’ positions in the rear of the aircraft knocked out. The first burst of fire also smashed the cockpit’s windshield, damaged the interphone, and split open the skull of pilot Lt. Robert Campbell. The pilot’s upper body slumped over his control wheel, causing it to start out of control. F/O Morgan seized the controls on his side and by sheer strength pulled the plane back into formation.
The disabled pilot continued to try to wrest the controls away from Morgan and smashed at the co-pilot with his fists, knocking some teeth loose and blackening both his eyes. Meanwhile, the top turret gunner was also seriously injured when a 20 mm shell tore off his left arm at the shoulder. He fell out of the turret position, and was found by the navigator bleeding to death. The navigator bailed the gunner out of the aircraft in a successful effort to save his life.
Unknown to Morgan, the waist, tail and radio gunners became unconscious from lack of oxygen and were threatened with death by anoxia. Morgan, unable to call for assistance because of the damaged interphone, had to decide whether to turn back immediately or try to fly all the way to the target and back within the protection of the formation. He also had to decide whether or not to subject Campbell to anoxia by cutting off his oxygen to disable him. In spite of wild efforts by the fatally wounded pilot to seize the controls, Morgan chose to complete the mission and not cut off his pilot’s oxygen supply.
by Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker
For two hours he held position in the formation – flying with one hand, fighting off the pilot with the other. At length the navigator entered the flight deck and relieved the situation. The navigator and bombardier secured the dying pilot in the nose compartment of the airplane. F/O Morgan’s B-17 reached the target at Hanover and successfully dropped its bombs. With all his fuel gauges reading empty, Morgan landed the bomber at RAF Foulsham. Lt. Campbell died an hour and half later, and the five surviving gunners recovered from various degrees of frostbite. The B-17 was declared damaged beyond economical repair and never flew again.
Capture
F/O Morgan transferred to the 482nd Bomb Group in October 1943 to fly B-17 H2X radar aircraft and was promoted to second lieutenant in November. He remained on combat duty, flying in 25½ missions.
On March 6, 1944, Morgan, now a first lieutenant, was the co-pilot on a B-17, ser. no. 42-3491, flown by Major Fred Rabo[3] leading the first major USAAF attack against Berlin. The aircraft was shot down and six of the crew were killed.[4][5] In his haste to escape the falling aircraft, Morgan bailed out without pausing to attach his chest-pack-type parachute. Free falling roughly 20,000 feet, he managed to attach the parachute pack and then successfully deploy it only about 500 feet above the ground.[6] Morgan, Rabo and two others were captured.[3][7] Morgan was held in Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany, for the remainder of the war, the only person to become a POW after being awarded the Medal of Honor.
Post-war career
In 1948 Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay, Jr. published their novel Twelve O’Clock High and used Morgan as a model for a primary character, Lt. Jesse Bishop. The wording of his actions appearing in his citation was used as dialogue in the script to describe the actions of Bishop under similar circumstances, and like Morgan, Bishop’s character was awarded the Medal of Honor and later became a POW. The circumstances also became a featured part of the 1949 film adaptation.
After the war, Morgan returned to work for Texaco in California selling aviation fuel. Called back to active duty when the Korean War broke out, he took a leave of absence from Texaco (1950–53) and applied for combat duty. The Air Force denied his request but allowed him to fly cargo planes in the United States for two years. He completed his final year on active duty in the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. In 1957, he retired from the Air Force Reserves as a lieutenant colonel. Morgan is survived by his only child Sam Morgan, who himself retired from the US Air Force after 20 plus years of service.
Morgan has four grandchildren and three step grandchildren of which two are currently serving in the Army and two others have served. Mark Morgan, the oldest, is a Colonel in the Army and has served several deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mark began his Military career in the Marine Corps serving in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as well as Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. Wade Ziegler is a Chief Warrant Officer Five, flying helicopters in the Army serving several tours in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as other conflict zones around the world.
Rachel Morgan retired a Captain in the Army serving in Iraq and John Morgan retired a Staff Sergeant in the Marine Corps after having served several tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Chris Morgan, Kristen and Rachel Ziegler all serve the Country in their own way telling the story of their grandfather to whoever will listen.
Morgan died on January 17, 1991, from complications associated with Alzheimer’s and a stroke. He is buried in section 59 at Arlington National Cemetery.
When questioned of his valor and heroism, Morgan replied, “There’s no such thing as a hero. …I was pushed into circumstances where I was forced to act. You can never say how you’re going to react to something until it happens, but I think most people would have done the same.”
Awards and decorations
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Medal of Honor citation
Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, while participating on a bombing mission over enemy-occupied continental Europe, 28 July 1943. Prior to reaching the German coast on the way to the target, the B17 aircraft in which 2d Lt. (sic) Morgan was serving as co-pilot was attacked by a large force of enemy fighters, during which the oxygen system to the tail, waist, and radio gun positions was knocked out.
A frontal attack placed a cannon shell through the windshield, totally shattering it, and the pilot’s skull was split open by a .303 caliber shell, leaving him in a crazed condition. The pilot fell over the steering wheel, tightly clamping his arms around it. 2d Lt. Morgan at once grasped the controls from his side and, by sheer strength, pulled the aircraft back into formation despite the frantic struggles of the semiconscious pilot.
The interphone had been destroyed, rendering it impossible to call for help. At this time the top turret gunner fell to the floor and down through the hatch with his arm shot off at the shoulder and a gaping wound in his side. The waist, tail, and radio gunners had lost consciousness from lack of oxygen and, hearing no fire from their guns, the copilot believed they had bailed out.
The wounded pilot still offered desperate resistance in his crazed attempts to fly the aircraft. There remained the prospect of flying to and over the target and back to a friendly base wholly unassisted. In the face of this desperate situation, 2d Lt. Officer Morgan made his decision to continue the flight and protect any members of the crew who might still be in the ship and for 2 hours he flew in formation with one hand at the controls and the other holding off the struggling pilot before the navigator entered the steering compartment and relieved the situation. The miraculous and heroic performance of 2d Lt. Morgan on this occasion resulted in the successful completion of a vital bombing mission and the safe return of his aircraft and crew.