John Levitow: AC-47 gunship hero, Medal of Honor recipient

Puff the Magic Dragon

When Levitow and his crew were defending a ground base from attack with their AC-47 gunship and its three 20mm cannons, their aircraft was hit by a mortar round. Blowing a huge hole in the wing and spraying the aircraft with shrapnel, many of the crew were wounded and the plane began shaking and became unstable. Levitow had 40 shrapnel wounds, was bleeding and had loss of feeling in his leg, but began helping the more severely wounded crew. When he saw a magnesium flare ignite and begin to smoke he crawled to it, hugged it to his body and scooted towards the open door. At 4000 deg F, the flare would have destroyed the plane so Levitow moved the smoking flare with his chest to the open door where he pushed it out. It exploded immediately but the crew and airplane were saved. Levitow was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions and went on to fly 20 more combat missions after recovering.

Even wounded, he was thinking about others. Valor is in you. Set it free.