On April 12, 1945, Staff Sergeant Henry “Red” Erwin was flying aboard a B-29 Superfortress on a mission over Koriyama, Japan.
He was the aircraft’s radio operator, but he had another responsibility that day: release a white-phosphorus smoke marker to help the bomber formation assemble.
Erwin dropped the device into its launching chute.
It malfunctioned.
The burning bomb exploded back into the aircraft and struck him in the face. It crushed his nose, blinded him, and filled the B-29 with thick, choking smoke. The cockpit vanished behind a wall of darkness. Unable to see, the pilot lost control, and the bomber plunged toward the ground.
Erwin understood immediately: if the bomb remained inside, everyone aboard would die.
He reached for it.
White phosphorus burns with devastating heat. It clung to his body and seared his hands as he pulled the bomb against himself. Completely blind, Erwin began feeling his way forward through the aircraft.
A gun turret blocked his path.
He worked around it.
The navigator’s table stood between him and the cockpit.
Holding the burning device between his forearm and his body, he released the table’s locking mechanism and forced his way through the narrow opening.
Every second, the aircraft continued falling.
Erwin reached the cockpit, found the copilot’s window with his burning hands, and threw the bomb outside.
Then he collapsed, engulfed in flames.
The smoke cleared just in time. At only a few hundred feet above the ground, the pilot pulled the B-29 out of its dive. The crew extinguished the fire consuming Erwin and rushed him to medical care after landing.
Against all expectations, Henry Erwin survived.
His decision had saved every man aboard the aircraft. For his heroism, he received the Medal of Honor.
Tenacity is not believing you cannot be broken. It is choosing to keep moving after the breaking has already begun—because other lives depend on you reaching the window.
This.... is what Tenacity Is.
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