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rachelmanija Feb. 10th, 2023 10:44 am)
rachelmanija Feb. 10th, 2023 10:44 am)In the bar we practiced the noble art of medicine. We knew the sickness and the remedy. "Ailment - death of a close friend or companion: remedy - wash the brain wound well with alcohol until the infected area becomes numb to the touch. Continue the treatment until the wound closes. A scar will remain, but this will not show after a while.
Another fighter pilot's memoir! This one is from WWII. He was shot down and badly burned, had his hands and face reconstructed by pioneering plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe, became a member of the Guinea Pig Club where he knew Richard Hillary, goes back to being a pilot, vows to bring down fifteen planes for each of his fifteen surgeries, does it, breaks his back in another crash, is sent back to McIndoe for treatment for that, and finally becomes a test pilot right in time for the war to end. No one can say this guy had an uneventful life.
Heartbreakingly, McIndoe didn't want to certify either Page or Hillary as fit to return to duty; he spent so much time getting to know them and putting them back together, he didn't want to give them his stamp of approval to go back and most likely be killed.
One thing puzzled me. Page writes that when Hillary died in a training accident, some people thought it was suicide, but Page believed there was no way Hillary would have killed his observer along with himself. Enigmatically, he writes that he knew Hillary and he knows why he crashed. But he doesn't say why. Anyone have any idea what was up with that?
Another minor bit that I found interesting was a funny anecdote in which he meets two beautiful young women at a party and mentions that he needs to find a place to crash. They invite him to come home with them. He eagerly accepts, thinking he's in for a threesome, but is disappointed when they show him to a bedroom and close the door. In fact, he writes, they were lesbians and very much in love. I mention this because it's an incident from the middle of WWII, in which two women were living together, it was known at least within their friend circle that they were lesbians, and it was no big deal - the joke here was very much on Page and his assumptions.
Page is a very good writer for the most part, and writes with equal vividness of flying, of combat, and of his hospital experience. If von Richthofen's memoir was emotionally one-note, this was the remedy: Page details the rage, fear, camaraderie, grief, joy, bloodlust, revenge, lust, humor, and exhaustion that was his war experience. Of course he had the benefit of hindsight, as this was written well after the war ended.
I've meant to read this since 2018, when I read Hillary's memoir followed by a much more dry account of The Guinea Pig's Club. Better late than never!
The end trails off into somewhat random anecdotes about his postwar job experiences, but other than that, this is an excellent book. Recommended.
This prompted me to take a deep dive into the Guinea Pig Club. The Wikipedia entry is now way more useful than the last time I checked, providing a complete list of memoirs by members, many still available (though not the one with the deadpan or perhaps merely factual title I Burned My Fingers), and also a list of pages of individual members. The latter is a trip and I will post some of my findings tomorrow.
Another fighter pilot's memoir! This one is from WWII. He was shot down and badly burned, had his hands and face reconstructed by pioneering plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe, became a member of the Guinea Pig Club where he knew Richard Hillary, goes back to being a pilot, vows to bring down fifteen planes for each of his fifteen surgeries, does it, breaks his back in another crash, is sent back to McIndoe for treatment for that, and finally becomes a test pilot right in time for the war to end. No one can say this guy had an uneventful life.
Heartbreakingly, McIndoe didn't want to certify either Page or Hillary as fit to return to duty; he spent so much time getting to know them and putting them back together, he didn't want to give them his stamp of approval to go back and most likely be killed.
One thing puzzled me. Page writes that when Hillary died in a training accident, some people thought it was suicide, but Page believed there was no way Hillary would have killed his observer along with himself. Enigmatically, he writes that he knew Hillary and he knows why he crashed. But he doesn't say why. Anyone have any idea what was up with that?
Another minor bit that I found interesting was a funny anecdote in which he meets two beautiful young women at a party and mentions that he needs to find a place to crash. They invite him to come home with them. He eagerly accepts, thinking he's in for a threesome, but is disappointed when they show him to a bedroom and close the door. In fact, he writes, they were lesbians and very much in love. I mention this because it's an incident from the middle of WWII, in which two women were living together, it was known at least within their friend circle that they were lesbians, and it was no big deal - the joke here was very much on Page and his assumptions.
Page is a very good writer for the most part, and writes with equal vividness of flying, of combat, and of his hospital experience. If von Richthofen's memoir was emotionally one-note, this was the remedy: Page details the rage, fear, camaraderie, grief, joy, bloodlust, revenge, lust, humor, and exhaustion that was his war experience. Of course he had the benefit of hindsight, as this was written well after the war ended.
I've meant to read this since 2018, when I read Hillary's memoir followed by a much more dry account of The Guinea Pig's Club. Better late than never!
The end trails off into somewhat random anecdotes about his postwar job experiences, but other than that, this is an excellent book. Recommended.
This prompted me to take a deep dive into the Guinea Pig Club. The Wikipedia entry is now way more useful than the last time I checked, providing a complete list of memoirs by members, many still available (though not the one with the deadpan or perhaps merely factual title I Burned My Fingers), and also a list of pages of individual members. The latter is a trip and I will post some of my findings tomorrow.
