Mierzejewski has long been troubled by the notion that Bush's decision to parachute from
his damaged aircraft might have cost the lives of Radioman second class John Delaney, a
close friend of Mierzejewksy, as well as gunner Lt. Junior Grade William White. 'I think
[Bush] could have saved those lives, if they were alive. I don't know that they were, but
at least they had a chance if he had attempted a water landing,'" Mierzejewski told the
New York Post.
Former executive officer Legare Hole summed up the question for the New York Post
reporters as follows: "If the plane is on fire, it hastens your decision to bail out. If it is not
on fire, you make a water landing." The point is that a water landing held out more hope
for all members of the crew. The Avenger had been designed to float for approximately
two minutes, giving the tail gunner enough time to inflate a raft and giving everyone an
extra margin of time to get free of the plane before it sank. Bush had carried out a water
landing back in June when his plane had lost oil pressure.
Commander Melvin and an intelligence officer named Lt. Martin E. Kilpatrick signed the
official- but undated- report on the incident among the squadron records. Kilpatrick is
deceased, and Melvin in 1988 was hospitalized with Parkinson's disease and could not be
interviewed. Mierzejewski in early August 1988 had never seen the undated intelligence
report in question. "Kilpatrick was the first person I spoke to when we got back to the
ship," he said. "I told him what I saw. I don't understand why it's not in the report."
Gunner Lawrence Mueller tended to corroborate Mierzejewki's account. Mueller had kept
a logbook of his own in which he made notations as the squadron was debriefed in the
ready room after each mission. For September 2, 1944, Mueller's personal log had the
following entry: "White and Delaney presumed to have gone down with plane." Mueller
told the New York Post "no parachute was sighted except Bush's when the plane went
down." The New York Post reporters were specific that according to Mueller, no one in
the San Jacinto ready room during the debriefing had said anything about a fire on board
Bush's plane. Mueller said: "I would have put it in my logbook if I had heard it."
According to this New York Post article, the report of Bush's debriefing, aboard the
submarine Finnback after his rescue, makes no mention of any fire aboard the plane.
When the New York Post reporters interviewed Thomas R. Keene, an airman from
another carrier who had been picked up by the Finnback a few days after Bush, and
referred to the alleged fire on board Bush's plane, "Keene was surprised to hear" it. "'Did
he say that?," Keene asked.
Leo Nadeau, Bush's usual rear turret gunner, who had been in contact with Bush during
the 1980's, attempted to undercut Mierzejewski's credibility by stating that "Ski," as
Mierzejewski was called, would have been "too busy shooting" to have been able to
focus on the events involving Bush's plane. But even the pro-Bush accounts agree that the
reason that White had been allowed to come aloft in the first place was the expectation
that there would be no Japanese aircraft over the target, making a thoroughly trained and
experienced gunner superfluous. Indeed, no account alleges that any Japanese aircraft
appeared over Chichi Jima.