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The Man Who Rode the Storm

Cron

Cron

Yankee Uniform Tango
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rankin

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937849,00.html

In 1959, Lt.Col. William Rankin (a WW2/Korean War vet) was flying his F-8 when he was forced to eject at 45,000 feet. He parachuted straight into a thunderstorm formation and was carried by the winds for 40 minutes, enduring frigid temperatures, hail, lightning and rain. He wrote a book about his experience titled "The Man Who Rode the Storm". Pretty amazing.

Any of the old guys heard this story before?
 
That was about the time I was learning to free fall and sport parachuting with the El Toro SkyDivers. His is an incredible story. My salute to him.
Semper Fi
Rocky
 
Cron said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rankin

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937849,00.html

In 1959, Lt.Col. William Rankin (a WW2/Korean War vet) was flying his F-8 when he was forced to eject at 45,000 feet. He parachuted straight into a thunderstorm formation and was carried by the winds for 40 minutes, enduring frigid temperatures, hail, lightning and rain. He wrote a book about his experience titled "The Man Who Rode the Storm". Pretty amazing.

Any of the old guys heard this story before?
Click to expand...

This is even before my time.:) Hopefully Banty (Ron Marron) will read your post and chime in, he was around then. He told me he was going fishing this weekend. If he has time to fish, he has time to answer your post.:) (Damn you Ron, I'm still digging out from the storm(s).)

Steve


Edit: Ask BZB, he'll probably know of this incident as well.
 
I read his book "The man who rode the thunder" good read. Suspect that paperback is long gone.
 
Oh yeah...read about the incident many times over...probably read the book, also. I clearly recall several years after the "ride", his story was published in a monthly Readers Digest magazine as well.

IIRC, he was pretty much beaten up (physically) during the time aloft...

and fishin' is out of the question 'til the temp rises a LOT!!
:icon_rage
 
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