Other crew members were killed, but Moran fell 21,000 feet inside the broken-off tail of the plane, landed in a tree, and lived to tell about it. He was taken prisoner, nursed back to health, and became the first American soldier to be repatriated in 1944--while the war was still going on. 

After the war, Moran became a rural mail carrier in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. 

In 1942, Gene had been in basic training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri with me.  We left there and were roommates in Las Vegas Gunnery School; then we went our separate ways. After returning from overseas duty, I was sent to Ft. Logan, Colorado rest camp (flak house) for rest and recuperation.

On a Sunday afternoon, I heard on the radio that Eugene Moran was the first one off the boat in New York and was being repatriated. 

I next saw Gene in the late 1940s, when he was in Eau Claire, attending the State American Legion Convention. He came to my house and told my wife and me exactly what had happened.  Their plane had received a direct burst of flak, and the tail was severed from the rest of the plane. He was in the tail, as it fell toward the ground. He tried to reach for his parachute, which would have been beside him, but was unable to get it. He said he resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die. Strangely, he said he wasn't afraid. He next woke up, hurting all over, and found himself in a small tree. German civilians were all around him, threatening him with pitchforks. Fortunately, the military came and rescued him. He was taken captive and sent to a prison camp. 

While in prison camp, he was nursed back to health by a fellow prisoner of war, a Lithuanian doctor. He maintains that the doctor probably saved his life because the Germans provided no medical aid whatsoever. 

Gene and his wife have been in Eau Claire to visit me a few times, and we have gone fishing together on occasion. On one fishing trip, Gene told me that he felt that the tail of the plane fell to the ground, somewhat like a leaf would fall from a tree. That speaks well for the durability of the tail section of the B-17. 

Although Moran is not from the Chippewa Valley, I thought this story warrants a place on this website.