B-24 pilot finally gets to thank his rescuer
Last Sunday, The Wichita Eagle published the story of Loren Corliss’ harrowing escape from death 65 years ago during World War II.
His B-24 bomber was shot down by Japanese fighter planes over the Philippine island of Mindanao. He parachuted out and spent 45 days in the jungle before an Army seaplane rescued him and his crew along a beach where the surf crashed with violent force.
The date was Dec. 22, 1944.
No reader in Wichita was more intrigued by that story than a 92-year-old former farm kid from Perry, Okla., named Harold Strub.
In a desk drawer at home in east Wichita, Strub keeps a seaplane log book.
* * *
East Wichita, May 30, 2010
A retired Boeing worker, Harold Strub has lived in Wichita the past 59 years.
He saw the date Corliss mentioned regarding his rescue: Dec. 22, 1944.