{"id":254052,"date":"2026-08-02T19:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=254052"},"modified":"2026-08-02T19:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:44:08","slug":"james-ward-crawled-onto-a-burning-bomber-at-13000-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/james-ward-crawled-onto-a-burning-bomber-at-13000-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"James Ward Crawled Onto a Burning Bomber at 13,000 Feet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>12<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A burning Vickers Wellington was coming apart over Holland when Sergeant James Ward did something almost impossible. He crawled outside the bomber at 13,000 feet and went after the fire himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"RAF
RAF Sergeant Pilot James Allen Ward was fearless on a whole new scale. Public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Between 3 and 6% of the general population suffers from acrophobia. That\u2019s the doctor word for fear of heights. Most normal people are rendered a bit uneasy if exposed to a high place, particularly without reliable safety measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military weaponizes this. Back when dinosaurs roamed the plains and I was training to become an Army officer, we had to walk along a long board set up on cinder blocks maybe eight inches off the ground. The objective was to step over a big wooden box mounted in the middle. At the time, we thought that a fairly ridiculous exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we climbed a tall tower out over a deep lake and had to do the same thing. This time, however, the long plank was secured forty feet above the water. What had been a bit of a lark down on terra firma became a gut check that high up in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That exercise was supposed to teach us something, though I don\u2019t recall exactly what. It did, however, leave an impression on me. Even though I am not in that 6% myself, I still wasn\u2019t too crazy about having to clamber over that big box suspended forty feet above a lake. While we can likely all agree that a modest fear of heights is pretty physiological, a WW2-era aviator named Sergeant James Allen Ward did not seem so encumbered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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