Don Parvin had trained with us as our navigator and flew our first 7 missions with us and was then transferred to a lead plane. That was when Robert Curran was assigned to our crew. That was around the first of September, and he was a nice quiet good looking young man with a bad scar on his forward. I knew about the trauma that he had.
 
Oct 14, 1944 was the first major effort against Cologne and it was rumored that Germany had been tipped off and they had every mobile flack gun in Germany there to protect Cologne. I believe it as the other crew in our hut flew there the next day and it wasn't too bad. Never the less, as we approached the target, the
barrage of anti-aircraft fire was so thick that it looked like a solid black wall.  As we flew into the solid black wall the smoke (it) was so thick that you barely could  see other planes in the formation. The smoke was choking thru your oxygen regulator, you could see the red cores of the explosions, you could hear shrapnel showering the plane, and the combustions was tossing the plane like a rubber ball. Brother, did I want out of the plane and praying to hear the bail out bell. I have said many times, if I had Curran's past experience, I do not believe I would have waited for the bell. I feel he had reason for leaving the plane. What happen to Curran ? I do not know. A pilot behind us said he fell in front of him and he could see his full "MaeWest" and he did not have a chute on, but he had a chest type chute and it was gone from the plane. Curran was from Chicago and another of the crew was also from Chicago, and he said that Curran was taken prisoner and our troops liberated the camp and Curran beat us back to the states. Woodis believed this, but that crew member had a great imagination and could tell some interesting stories, so I do not know whether to believe it or not. 
 
Now I will try to you the trauma of the rest of the mission. After we got past the target, Woodis call for an oxygen check, thinking that some of (us) would be wounded. Everybody replied but Curran. Woodis sent a Lt. (will not name him as it might cause some embarrassment) down to check on Curran.  As the Lt.
leaned from the upper deck down to the lower deck, all he could see was open space and the blast of air 40 degree below zero (approx.) hit him in the face, He made a bad assumption. He reported back to Woodis that the whole bottom of the deck had blown off. Woodis asked about the nose wheel, the Lt. said
it had blown out and we had none. About that time Robert Allen the nose gunner asked what was holding his turret on, the Lt. said only the top skin. The nose (had) gotten a back type chute and could not lock and unlock the turret doors from the inside. Curran was suppose to lock and unlock the doors for him but had gone out before unlocking the doors at the target. The next thing we heard was Allen called and said his doors were locked and somebody had to him to unlock the doors before the turret fell off. Woodis asked the Lt. if anybody could get to the turret to unlock the doors, he (Lt.) replied that it was impossible. At that point
Allen begin to freak out. He said his turret was falling and he was locked in it and he had no chance. As he was crying and begging, I called Woodis and told him I would get a walk around oxygen bottle and try to get to him. Woodis asked the Lt. if it were possible for me to reach him. The Lt. said it was impossible.
Wier the other waist gunner called Woodis and said he would get a bottle and try to help me. Again the Lt. said it was impossible. At this point, Woodis told he was not going to lose 3 men trying to save l , and he was giving a "direct order" for Wier and me to stay in the waist. The nose gunner was crying and begging so
hard that it tearing the whole crew up, so Woodis gave the nose gunner a " direct order " to get off the intercom. For a long period of time , we knew was gone and thought the nose turret was falling off with Allen locked in it and we were to have crash land with no nose wheel. When let down to low altitude, the engineer
went down to bottom deck and discovered that only the nose wheel doors were open where Curran had gone out. That was much to our relief but did not reversed the trauma we had been thru. The nose gunner yelled unlock my doors. He came to the waist and laid on the floor and with tremors and crying, he had a convulsion. He recovered and finished his missions with us.