Medevac From Luzon A small band of helicopter pilots risked
their lives to rescue wounded soldiers during World War II. - By
Roger Connor - Air & Space magazine, July 2010 38TH DIVISION
PHOTOGRAPHER Louis Carle thought his helicopter was small enough
to land in a clearing on a jungle hilltop in Luzon. It was June
1945, the waning days of the Pacific war, and Carle, a second
lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Forces, was trying to evacuate a
wounded American soldier from the main island in the
Philippines. Carle began a cautious descent in his Sikorsky
R-4B, but a rotor tip hit a tree, and with an abrupt jerk, the
helicopter began thrashing itself to pieces. After the
helicopter hit the ground, Carle was helped from the wreckage.
He found himself sitting in the midst of a small band of U.S.
soldiers. Nearby, starving but well-armed Japanese squads were
determined to resist to the end. With injuries to his head and
leg and a splinter of a wood rotor blade lodged behind his right
eye, Carle had no choice but to ord