Originally presented by 9News of Denver, this report tells the story of Richard Vanden Heuvel, a WWII veteran who was a twenty-year-old tail gunner when his B-29 was shot down seventy miles off the coast of Japan.
You might wonder why this is categorized as a Sailors’ Story. It is because, after bailing out, Vanden Heuvel and eleven other crew members were saved by the crew of an American submarine.
Recently, Vanden Heuvel received a package containing color footage of his rescue — taken by a crewman of the submarine and only recently found in the submariner’s closet. Vanden Heuvel received both the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross during World War II.
The 1945 news account gives more details about the crash and how quickly the crew was picked up.