"We've Got Faith"

In civilian life, Lieut. Colonel Holly Anderson of Lewiston, Idaho was an automotive parts salesman. In World War II he managed to get into the Air Force, although he was over age, picked up the nickname, "Have Faith," because, with a salesman's cheerfulness, he often told his crews that faith would get them home.

Now, at 36, "Have Faith" Anderson commands a squadron of the 98th Bomb Group in Korea. His lumbering Super-forts, like their pilots, are almost all veterans of another war. One day last week, Anderson led four Japan-based B-29s toward the rail bridges at Kwaksan. Before they had a chance to release their bombs, 30 MIGs jumped the mission and its cover of F-86s.

Attack from the Sun. Anderson was riding in a 6-29 piloted by Captain Warren Cook of Vacaville, Calif. As Anderson told it later to a TIME correspondent: "There they were, eight or ten streamers [vapor trails], a beautiful picture. We turned 18DEG to get all the tail wind we could. As we turned, the MIGs went over past us. They were going to turn into us from the sun, make head-on passes and pick us off.

"But as the MIG leader went over--that was the place where he couldn't see me--I turned toward the coast. It would take him about four minutes to go up and turn back. We'd be that much ahead of the game. West of Sinanju the gunners reported the MIGs again, 9 o'clock high, forming for attack. I pulled the formation together and instructed the pilots to make shallow turns into the Red fighters. That would get us near them faster, give them less shooting time.

"About then we noticed that our diamond man [plane in last position in the formation] was burning. His No. 3 engine was on fire. We turned out to the coast to cover him, and he pulled under us. Later, the boys saw chutes come out of the 29 below. The MIGs kept pressing the at tack. We could feel shudders as they passed under.

"Then we got hit in the tail. We lost cabin pressure. Instruments started reading zero. All the time, this battle was going south. I think the MIGs finally broke off the attack at Pyongyang.

"About this point, our left gunner said we had a fire in the wing between the engines. We prepared to bail out, but then we decided to ride it out for a while. All the time we were headed for our secondary target, the marshaling yards at Sariwon. You know, you're up there in a million-dollar airplane. Damn it, you've got to bomb."

Ready to Jump. "So we bombed, right on the yards, and kept on coming down. Then we smelled gasoline in the plane. Somebody said the radar man was putting out a fire that was coming in from the wing. We got ready to jump again. We shut off our power, went on the emergency intercom. I still had faith.

"God bless the Marine Corps! They came up in a plane and looked us over. They said the fire was out and we looked fine, except our bomb-bay doors were hanging open. So we got to an airfield and told the tower we'd like to land, except that we might burn on the way in.

"We gave the crew members a choice again of jumping or riding it down in. One of them said: 'Hell, we've come this far. We've got faith. Let's go in.' We made a normal landing. [Only one of Anderson's four bombers was lost.]

"I don't know why we didn't blow up. Three MIG shells had hit us. You could look in the hole on the wing and see gasoline. You could reach right in and grab a handful. But if you're really trying, there's always a way out of all these deals. Not that I don't always carry a razor and toothbrush and all that, just in case."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.