The Pittsburgh Press (February 8, 1943)
Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
A forward airdrome in French North Africa – (Feb. 7)
It is a long jump from teaching grade school in Indiana to leaping out of an airplane 11,000 feet over some African mountains, but Tom Thayer made it. He hopes his next jump will be right back to an Indiana farm, and there he’ll stay.
Tom Thayer is “the hope of Hoosierdom," as the boys call him. He is from Hope, Indiana. Tom is 27, weighed 200 pounds, taught the fifth and sixth grades for five years at Clifford, Indiana, and is now the navigator of a Flying Fortress. They say he is the best celestial navigator in his squadron.
Not long ago, a bunch of Fortresses started a bombing trip to Bizerte. Over the mountains they ran into stormy, freezing weather. The ship Tom was navigating iced up and went out of control. The captain gave the order over the intercom for the crew to put their parachutes on and get ready to jump. A minute later he gave the order to jump. Lt. Thayer was first on the list. He opened the escape hatch, and out he went.
Now, in the next few seconds some things happened. The other men didn’t jump immediately, because they couldn’t get the ball-turret gunner out of his turret. While they were pulling and tugging at him, the captain got some control over the plane. Then he ordered the bombs salvoed – which means dropped so they won’t explode – and that gave him still more control. Then he countermanded the order to jump. But poor Tom was already halfway to earth. The plane returned safely to base in less than an hour. It took Tom four days.
After his parachute opened, Tom says, he could still see the plane but it seemed to be below him instead of above. He thought he must be falling up. He hasn’t figure it out yet.
He dropped through several thousand feet of clouds, still holding his pulled ripcord, for he knew if he saved it, he would become a member of some club, although he couldn’t remember its name – the Caterpillar Club. Anyhow his hand finally got so cold he threw the ripcord away.
The mountains where he landed were very rocky. His head struck as he came down, and he bled a good deal. He was conscious, but couldn’t get up for about five minutes.
He says the mountains were full of Arabs, working in the fields. He walked a short way and spoke to one, but not knowing the language, he didn’t get very far. So the Arab took him to a village and they went to a stone house, apparently the home of the village chief. The whole village clustered around to stare at him.
The chief was friendly and brought Tom a mattress, and also gave him an Arab nightgown to keep him warm. It was only 4:30 in the afternoon, but Tom lay down and went to sleep. Pretty soon the Arab brought in what Tom supposed was tea, though he wasn’t sure. Then he went to sleep again. About 8:30, the Arab came in with dinner – goat meat. It wasn’t too good.
Four other Arabs slept on the floor in the same room with Tom that night. Their snoring kept him awake. So did the fleas – he’s still got the welts. A sheep slept in the same room too. Tom didn’t sleep a wink all night.
Next morning, they fed him three fried eggs and some fried potatoes, and wound a turban around his injured head. Then they went out and killed the sheep that had slept in the same room. They butchered it and cooked its heart in the same coals where the Arabs had been warming their feet. They gave the heart to Tom, and he figured then that he was safe for sure.
After all this they got six donkeys, lashed the sheep’s carcass on top of one of them, put Tom on another, and started out. The donkeys over here are very small, and Tom is very big. When they would ride along the edge of a chasm, on a little shelf just wide, enough for a donkey, Tom could feel his long legs itching for the ground.
He finally arrived at a French garrison. He tried to pay them for taking care of him, but they wouldn’t take any money. However, some photographs from his wallet fascinated them, and they indicated a desire for some of them. So, Miss Mary Scott of Shelbyville, Indiana, will be interested to know that her photograph now reposes on a French soldier’s mantle.
At any rate, Tom says he’s going to marry Mary the day he gets home and then start farming and never stop.
For a while Tom was pretty sore about the others not jumping too, but he was all over it by the time he got back to the airdrome. They say he’s the best-natured guy in the outfit. Nobody had ever seen him really mad, so they decided to rib him. One man rushed up and shook hands and said:
Tom, you made a mistake. The captain didn’t say “Bail out.” He said, “Look, hail out.”
They had him fooled for a minute.
Tom’s dad used to be county auditor back home. He had one term and then got defeated last fall for by only 133 votes. The boys kid Tom and say that if he’d only had the gumption to make his spectacular jump a couple of months earlier, his father could no doubt have been re-elected on the strength of it.
