WWII Combat Injuries

[AmateisGal]

I'm either having an extreme malfunction in the brain these days or I'm just not getting enough sleep. Either way, I'm in need of some suggestions.

During WW2, what were the types of physical injuries a B-17 bomber pilot could suffer that would cause him to be sent home from the war for good besides loss of limb?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Diamondback]

Not sure about "sent home", but serious burns over enough of the body would probably see him hospitalized and then reassigned to noncombat duty for a while...

Perhaps your pilot got 'em at "Hughes XF-11 crash" level and was reassigned to Chairborne duty Stateside once he recovered?

Added bonus angst: a severe enough burn, even once it heals you still feel it for the rest of your life. This plus the resulting addiction to painkillers were I think part of wat drove Hughes looneytunes...

Of course, there's also the perennial-favorite Section 8 "headcase discharge"...

 

[carouselvic]

Loss of eye sight
Loss of reasonable use of arms or legs

 

[AmateisGal]

Loss of eye sight
Loss of reasonable use of arms or legs

Here's another question. If you lost sight in just one eye, would it permanently ground you, even from civilian flying?

What about loss of hearing in one ear?

 

[AmateisGal]

Not sure about "sent home", but serious burns over enough of the body would probably see him hospitalized and then reassigned to noncombat duty for a while...

Perhaps your pilot got 'em at "Hughes XF-11 crash" level and was reassigned to Chairborne duty Stateside once he recovered?

Added bonus angst: a severe enough burn, even once it heals you still feel it for the rest of your life. This plus the resulting addiction to painkillers were I think part of wat drove Hughes looneytunes...

Of course, there's also the perennial-favorite Section 8 "headcase discharge"...

Headcase discharge...do you mean PTSD in modern-day terms?

 

[Diamondback]

PTSD would be a form of Section 8, but it's a general catch-all term for all "mental" separations IIRC. Any psych condition that renders you unfit for continued service...

 

[carouselvic]

http://www.faa.gov/pilots/become/

Here's another question. If you lost sight in just one eye, would it permanently ground you, even from civilian flying?

What about loss of hearing in one ear?

 

[dhermann1]

I believe the extreme stress from high altitudes could do a lot of damage to your system. I think things like heart disease and high blood pressure could crop up, even in younger men. Also inner ear damage could happen, I think.
Any experts on the subject out there? Dixon Cannon? And where's Twitch when you need him?
(Good question, where's Twitch???!!!)

 

[Diamondback]

Also, a power-dive with any kind of sinus congestion was a recipe for a ruptured eardrum. (The common cold was the bane of his existence for any flight-surgeon attached to a dive-bomber unit.)

Any kind of violent, sudden altitude change after a prolonged exposure is a problem--IIRC, going up past a certain point without a pressure-suit or pressurized plane, or a sudden loss of cabin-pressure, and you could get the bends just like coming up from a deep SCUBA dive with no decompression-stops. Could be a career-ender in flying, IIRC...

 

[dhermann1]

What was that pre war flick where the guy quit one company and joined another when the flight surgeon grounded him, and then he goes off and gets killed on a flight? Was it the one with Gable and Myrna Loy?
Anyhoo, the stress from going up and down in a non pressurized cabin can wreck the human body without leaving any visible scars.

 

[David Conwill]

What was it Curtis LeMay had - Bell's Palsy? I think that was from excessive altitude in an unpressurized cabin. I don't know that it would be sufficient to send you home, though.

-Dave

 

[Edward]

Would it possibly also depend upon the period of the war you're thinking of? The impression I've always had is that the later in the war, and therfore the shorter they were of men, the less likely they would have been to write somebody off unless totally unavoidable.

 

[AmateisGal]

Would it possibly also depend upon the period of the war you're thinking of? The impression I've always had is that the later in the war, and therfore the shorter they were of men, the less likely they would have been to write somebody off unless totally unavoidable.

Edward, I'm thinking late 1942, early 1943.

 

[AmateisGal]

Also, a power-dive with any kind of sinus congestion was a recipe for a ruptured eardrum. (The common cold was the bane of his existence for any flight-surgeon attached to a dive-bomber unit.)

Any kind of violent, sudden altitude change after a prolonged exposure is a problem--IIRC, going up past a certain point without a pressure-suit or pressurized plane, or a sudden loss of cabin-pressure, and you could get the bends just like coming up from a deep SCUBA dive with no decompression-stops. Could be a career-ender in flying, IIRC...

But would a ruptured ear-drum send you home or end your flying career?

Here's the thing...it has to be enough to keep him out of the army, but not enough to stop him from flying in his civilian life.

And thanks, all, for your help! Much appreciated.

 

[dhermann1]

Aha!

You're creating a fictional character, and you need him to start out as a hero pilot, but be out of the service before war's and, and still able to fly.
Hmmm . . . . How about losing an eye? The eye patch could be very dashing. Just a thought.

 

[AmateisGal]

You're creating a fictional character, and you need him to start out as a hero pilot, but be out of the service before war's and, and still able to fly.
Hmmm . . . . How about losing an eye? The eye patch could be very dashing. Just a thought.

Exactly! This guy is fictional.

 

[Lone_Ranger]

You're creating a fictional character, and you need him to start out as a hero pilot, but be out of the service before war's and, and still able to fly.
Hmmm . . . . How about losing an eye? The eye patch could be very dashing. Just a thought.

One real.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post

One fictional...

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3954481408/tt0346156

 

[p51]

Exactly! This guy is fictional.

You could base it on this guy:

Peter Delo, co-pilot in the 91st BG, ditched in the North Sea early in 1944 in a B-17 called the "Sugar Blues." http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/misslist-37939.htm When they went into the water, a belt of .50 caliber ammo popped out of the top turret box and whacked him in the back of the head. He couldn't see a thing after that. He was totally blind for quite some time until he got to a British hospital. He eventually got his eyesight back, but they sent him back to the states after doing some ground echelon work around the base. He never flew in combat again and had only 9 missions under his belt. He eventually returned to flying, handling P-39s with gunnery students at Las Vegas during the end of the war. He even stayed in the Air National Guard, flying P-47s out of Baltimore. He ditched yet again, with a Jug into Baltimore harbor in the 50s but wasn't hurt in that incident.
Pete was a friend of mine in his later years, he passed in 1999. I still miss this great guy.

 

[AmateisGal]

You could base it on this guy:

Peter Delo, co-pilot in the 91st BG, ditched in the North Sea early in 1944 in a B-17 called the "Sugar Blues." http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/misslist-37939.htm When they went into the water, a belt of .50 caliber ammo popped out of the top turret box and whacked him in the back of the head. He couldn't see a thing after that. He was totally blind for quite some time until he got to a British hospital. He eventually got his eyesight back, but they sent him back to the states after doing some ground echelon work around the base. He never flew in combat again and had only 9 missions under his belt. He eventually returned to flying, handling P-39s with gunnery students at Las Vegas during the end of the war. He even stayed in the Air National Guard, flying P-47s out of Baltimore. He ditched yet again, with a Jug into Baltimore harbor in the 50s but wasn't hurt in that incident.
Pete was a friend of mine in his later years, he passed in 1999. I still miss this great guy.

p51, what a great story! Wow.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

What was that pre war flick where the guy quit one company and joined another when the flight surgeon grounded him, and then he goes off and gets killed on a flight? Was it the one with Gable and Myrna Loy?
Anyhoo, the stress from going up and down in a non pressurized cabin can wreck the human body without leaving any visible scars.

Famed Lockheed test pilot Marshall Headle wrecked his health in high altitude chamber tests.

You are probably thinking of these two films:

Dive Bomber, Errol Flynn and Fred MacMurray.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033537/

The Gable and Myrna Loy film was Test Pilot

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030848/