THE GREATEST MIRACLE! Much more could be written but I am closing with this gift from God. After I had flown 4 or five combat missions, I was leading a flight of four out of Europe back to home base in England. It was a late afternoon mission, a cold front was predicted and it would likely be dark by landing time. The bad weather arrived earlier than expected, and the clouds as we reached the French coast, had forced us to a very low altitude. Our prominant check point upon reaching the English Coast was the Isle of Wight, a small isand near the coast, at the mouth of a small river we could follow to base. Over the channel, at 200 feet above the water, now dark, with 60 more miles to fly to landfall, the challenge was to be sure to find the Isle of Wight. As we left France I knew _about_ where we were, but to be sure I would find the Island, I made a compass heading correction that I felt sure would place me to the right of the Island. Then a left turn and flight along the English coast would bring me to the Isle and safely home. As we approached the English coast we were confronted with great white cliffs extending as far as visible in either direction. These must be the White Cliffs of Dover that were many miles to the right of the Isle of Wight. Simple solution--turn left and fly to my check point. This I did. And we flew and flew along the coast line and never reached the Island. Somehow I had missed it, I thought. In reality, I had not missed it. The white cliffs we saw were the cliffs of the Isle of Wight. We had never flown over the Island before except at altitude and had no idea that these cliffs resembled the cliffs at Dover, at night and low altitude. I was now in a perilious situation. My stress was increased because two of the pilots with me were on their very first mission. It was my responsibility to see them safely home. Fuel was running low and I was sure not sufficient to fly back to the Isle and home. Not really having a plan, I turned inland over the English countryside. We were flying over what looked like a carpet of black velvet. Not a glimmer of light, anywhere. Not far inland I noticed we were not very high above the trees. Totally lost,no radio or navigational aids to help, low on fuel , I devised a plan. I would reverse course, take my flight back over the water and we would all bail out. It is impossible to describe my feeling of despair, the hopeless and leaden feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was about to lose 4 aircraft, injure or maybe kill some pilots. I would be disgraced for life and I am not sure whether I would have pulled the rip-cord on my parachute or not. I started my turn toward the Channel and was ready to press the microphone button to inform the guys. I said to myself," God help me ,now". In the turn I looked down at the ground and their I saw a tiny.tiny spot of light. For some reason, I made a complete 360 degree turn around that light and upon completion of the circle, a well lighted runway appeared. We landed safely. I had flown over a b-26 bomber base. I don't know how the tower operator knew we were friendlies rather than enemy fighters on a sneak attack. Thank God, he turned on the lights. The next morning when we took off to go home, to our surprise we could see the many villages along the shore that had their barrage balloons flying. I had, miraculously ,entered at the few places where their were no ballooms. As I grew older and wiser, I have had to conclude that God had a purpose for sparing my life. I have spent the last half of my life serving Him wherever He has led me. To God Be TheGlory! That's all folks. ©whcameron2000

AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

1. Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster1

2. Distinguished Flying Cross

3. Air Medal with 12 oak leaf clusters

4. Air Force Commendation Medal

5. Presidential Unit Citation

6. Europeon Theatre of Operation with 4 Campaign stars

Thank you, Stoney, for this AWARD, your assistance and support.

RITA: This AWARD is beautiful. A picture is worth a thousand words!