Tom Harmon

[Jack Cook]

1940 Heisman Trophy winner/two-time University of Michigan football All-American 2Lt. Thomas D. Harmon. Harmon was flying on a combat mission in China with the 449th Fighter Squadron/51st Fighter Group on 10-30-43 when his Lockheed P-38 "Little Butch II" was brought down by enemy fire. Harmon was able to parachute to safety but spent several weeks evading the Japanese and walking out of the wilderness. Harmon was helped extensively by the Chinese civilian population. Harmon's book "Pilots also Pray", which was published in 1944 and has apparently been out of print for 60 years. The book offers no details of his escape because it was published during the war. It seems that it was SOP that pilots who escaped capture behind enemy lines with the help of the Chinese were not allowed to return to flight status in the theater. If they were to be shot down again and fall into the hands of the Japanese, the Japanese would interrogate (torture) them and discover the identity of those who helped them and then punish them.
Harmon implicated the village that had helped him and the Japanese wiped out the entire village in reprisal. At least one (possibly many more) American flyer(s) downed in the area after that was/were stoned to death by the Chinese. Pilots in the 14th AF held Harmon responsible and he was not invited to, nor welcome at their reunions. As popular as he might have been stateside, he was persona non grata (sp?) with the entire 14th AF! So the story goes...

[Mark Nankivil]

Interesting pic and story Jack - thanks. I'm wondering where he would have had the opportunity to implicate the village since it was not in the book - any ideas?

Thanks again! Mark

[Jack Cook]

A big mouth.
Everyone I talked to hated him.
Rex Barber at the mention of his name had a vein bulge out of his forehead!
These also the B-25 incident in S. America