He wept all the way home.

>Once at least, in April, the flak that hit one plane brought down two of the B-24s. Lt. Jerome Slater was the pilot of one of them, Lt. Michael Callen had the controls of the other. After completing a bomb run over Porto San Stefano, Italy, flying in a diamond formation, Callen had Slater’s B-24 and another bomber tucked up under each of his wings. Slater’s plane was hit by a flak burst on its number one engine. It severed the wing and his plane immediately went out of control. It rolled to the left as it flipped over on its back and struck Callen’s plane back to back. “Debris was flying everywhere,” reported the six-plane flight leader, Lt. Eugene Hudson. “Only one parachute was seen to open.” The twenty crewmen were listed as missing in action. Callen’s regular navigator, Lt. Guy Kuntz, was flying with Hudson that day. He wept all the way home after witnessing his crew lost. _________________________ **Source:** Ambrose, Stephen E. “The Fifteenth Air Force.” *The Wild Blue: The Crews of the B-24*. Simon & Schuster, 2002. 125. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Asch et al., *Flight of the Vulgar Vultures*, 96-97.