999 Survived Survival Experiences In The Southwest Pacific

[Batch]

I did a search and don't see where anybody else has written about this book. It is out of print but can be purchased for about $15. 999 Survived Survival Experiences In The Southwest Pacific.

The book is the result of the research on 1000 pilots who were forced to survive after being forced to ditch their planes. It doesn't relate the individuals stories so much as covers how the 1000 viewed each challenge.

For instance on first aid. It relays that 90% of the fliers used their first aid kit after hitting the ground. While all fliers had been trained in rendering first aid. None had been trained in rendering first aid on themselves. Many who had head injuries found bandaging themselves adequately to be very difficult. Setting your own broken limbs. One guy had to roll his plane to eject and when he deployed the chute he looked up to see the his plane coming straight back at him. He lifted against his chute with all his might. But, the prop still amputated one of his legs at the knee. He got hung up in a tree dangling about 5' above the ground. He was desperately trying to bandage and tourniquet his leg before he passed out. luckily for him a friendly native came running to his aid and finished the job.

Midway down the page on the link below is a link to download a PDF copy of the book.

http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=get...fier=AD0727726

Take a look at the table of contents. The book is only 60 pages long and is packed with what I find pretty useful information on a lot of the thing we talk about here.

[DSJohnson]

neat. Thanks

[hunter63]

MF ditch out of a B 29 twice one in the South Pacific, once in China.......Had a bad back till the day he died. ...From the China.... night chute landing.
Ocean was next to a destroyer.

Never really talked about it.....Got his compass though.

[Faiaoga]

Fascinating with useful information. Very good analysis of people who were real "naked castaways".
I hope this booklet was used by those planning modern day survival schools in the Pacific region.
Glancing quickly over the PDF, I note two statements: there was "no end of supply of native food materials" and "apparently, it took considerable courage on the part of survivors to try these strange fruits".

Thank you for providing this.

[Faiaoga]

I see the booklet stamped with the date 1971. Is this when the study was actually written or was the study performed closer to the end of WWII?

[Rick]

According to the References section the author collected material during the war years then added to it at a later time along with interviews. Check page 64.