Memorial

Biography

458th Bomber Group Heavy

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"2nd Lt John P Egan,Navigator, also delayed his jump until it was too late. According to Slencak,I believe Lt Egan followed me after and jumped (I vaguely remember seeing someone leaving from the opposite side of the bomb bay. I found him lying under the wing of the plane,, Parachute on but unopened. He probably delayed pulling the ripcord for a second or two and in this particular instance it was fatal. Bob Swift last saw Lt Egan, on the catwalk between the flight deck and nose compartment. Lt Egan did not want me to open the nose wheel doors until the second alarm bell was sounded. I chose to slide back to the bomb bay and he followed me. I jumped from the bomb bay with, I should judge, about 8-10 seconds to spare. My parachute opened and I was on the ground. Lt Egan apparently did not have time to jump. I never heard the second bell. I was not with my regular crew the day we were shot down. Lt Egan's crew may have had different signals than I was used to. This may be the reason he did not want open the nose wheel doors."