US ship, send a special frequency back to his own carrier...no other way to
communicate, had to get out now, had to be ... NOW.It will be seen that these versions contain numerous internal contradictions, but that the
hallmark of "red Studebaker" orthodoxy, especially after the appearance of the
Mierzejewsky account, is that Bush's plane was on fire, with visible smoke and flames.
The Bush propaganda machine needs the fire on board the Avenger in order to justify
Bush's precipitous decision to bail out, leaving his two-crew members to their fate, rather
than attempting the water landing which might have saved them.
The only person who has ever claimed to have seen Bush's plane get hit, and to have seen
it hit the water, is Chester Mierzejewksi, who was the rear turret gunner in the aircraft
flown by Squadron Commander Douglas Melvin. During 1987-88, Mierzejewksi became
increasingly indignant as he watched Bush repeat his canonical account of how he was
shot down. Shortly before the Republican National Convention in 1988, Mierzekewski,
by then a 68-year-old retired aircraft foreman living in Cheshire, Connecticut, decided to
tell his story to Allan Wolper and Al Ellenberg of the New York Post, which printed it as
a copyrighted article. [fn 8]
"That guy is not telling the truth," Mierzejewski said of Bush.
As the rear-looking turret gunner on Commander Melvin's plane, Mierzejewski had the
most advantageous position for observing the events in question here. Since Melvin's
plane flew directly ahead of Bush's, he had a direct and unobstructed view of what was
happening aft of his own plane. When the New York Post reporters asked former Lt.
Legare Hole, the executive officer of Bush's squadron, about who might have best
observed the last minutes of the Barbara II, Hole replied: "The turret gunner in Melvin's
plane would have had a good view. If the plane was on fire, there is a very good chance
he would be able to see that. The pilot can't see everything that the gunner can, and he'd
miss an awful lot, " Hole told the New York Post.
Gunner Lawrence Mueller of Milwaukee, another former member of Bush's squadron
who flew on the Chichi Jima mission, when asked who would have had the best view,
replied: "The turret gunner of Melvin's plane." Mierzejewksi for his part said that his
plane was flying about 100 feet ahead of Bush's plane during the incident - so close that
he could see into Bush's cockpit.
Mierzejewki, who is also a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, told the New
York Post that he saw "a puff of smoke" come out of Bush's plane and quickly dissipate.
He asserted that after that there was no more smoke visible, that Bush's "plane was never
on fire" and that "no smoke came out of his cockpit when he opened his canopy to bail
out." Mierzejewski stated that only one man ever got out of the Barbara II, and that was
Bush himself. "I was hoping I would see some other parachutes. I never did. I saw the
plane go down. I knew the guys were still in it. It was a helpless feeling."