Otis L. Cook, 50, farmer, helped to rescue William G. DeBrun, 20, airplane pilot trainee, U. S. A., from burning, Peoria, Arizona, January 29, 1945. An airplane being driven by DeBrun crashed in a field and lay bottom up. DeBrun was suspended head down in the cockpit, his head, one arm, and one shoulder being outside on the ground. Flames rose 15 feet above the fuselage. Carrying a wet cotton blanket, Otis ran to the fuselage and threw the blanket over DeBrun’s head. Then heedless of DeBrun’s warning that the tanks might explode, Otis grasped DeBrun’s wrist and tried to pull him out but could not. Heat was intense. Orville 0. Cook then arrived with wet burlap sacks, and he and Otis threw the sacks against the cockpit above DeBrun’s head. Again DeBrun called a warning, but Otis and Orville paid no heed. A rope then having been brought, Orville placed a loop at one end around DeBrun, who cried in pain when the rope was pulled by Otis and Orville and others. After some difficulty DeBrun was pulled from beneath the wing, and Otis and Orville carried him farther from the airplane. DeBrun was fatally burned, dying 12 hours later. Neither Otis nor Orville sustained any burns. 40433-3444
40433 – 3444
40433-3444