Charles R. Marchant

Charles R. Marchant, 32, chief radio electrician, saved John W. Huggan, 26, air gunner, from burning and explosion, Metlakatla, Alaska, September 21, 1942. An airplane, in which Huggan, John M. Wallace, and William N. Gray were riding, fell to the ground. Gray and Wallace were thrown clear and lay injured on the ground near the nose of the airplane. Huggan was in a compartment and was unconscious from injuries. Fire broke out on the nose and one wing, and flames rose 10 to 20 feet. Machine gun cartridges and one or two bombs were in the airplane. Marchant and Jack R. Bassett ran 300 feet to the airplane. Cartridges began to explode. Marchant climbed onto the edge of one wing to reach a door, but the heat was too intense, and he stepped to the ground. He ran to the side of Huggan’s compartment, the cover of which had been torn off. Cartridges continued to explode. Marchant climbed onto the fuselage, sat astride it, and pulled Huggan part way out. Sliding to the ground, he pulled Huggan out of the airplane and then dragged him away from it. Meanwhile Loran H. Sasseen, who also had run to the airplane, and Bassett had dragged Gray and Wallace away from the airplane. Fifteen minutes after the rescues there was an explosion in the airplane that blew it to fragments. No one was injured by it. Huggan, Wallace, and Gray suffered serious injuries in the accident; but none died.