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Submitted PhotoLen Rogers, left, gave a presentation to the Ontonagon-White Pine Rotary Club Wednesday on surviving two plane crashes in 1944. The first was in the Porcupine Mountains near Silver City; the second, four months later near Bordeaux, France. Pictured with Rogers is hisfour, including Rogers, who hit(Continued from Page 1)and he went last. He described the jump, seeing only white and black getting closer and closer to the ground and hoping he would not land in the lake.Instead, he landed in a tree.The former tail gunner detailed the way he was able to get out of the parachute and the tree, taking his chute with him.“I walked waist deep in snow and it was cold and very wet,” he said, describing the huge trees and the difficulty walking in theforest.At one point, he looked up and standing before him was a bear. The New York native had never seen a bear and when two more were spotted near the first bear, Rogers decided to “get out fast.”But it was not fast. His socks were soaked and shoes wet. He took them off and tried to dry them. Finally, he cut pieces from his parachute with a nail file and wrapped the nylon around his feet and put the boots back on.“Do you know how hard it is to cut nylon with a nail file?” Rogers laughed.Rescued At LastAt one point, Rogers said he saw a small post that said Forest Ranger 29-30, 1936. That iswhen fear really clutched at him since he thought they had crashed in Canada and he may be in the Canadian wilderness.The first sign of relief came when Rogers came upon an area that had been brush cut and he knew someone had been in that area.He started to yell and then heard a gunshot.“I yelled some more and there were four more shots and I knew I was rescued,” he said.“You are the one we are looking for,” a man said.Exhausted, Rogers fell into the arms of a rescuer who offered him a sip from a flask.“I think it was moonshine,” Rogers said. The airman passed out and woke up in a hospital in Ontonagon. The other crew members had landed nearer the lake and Silver City and were rescued the first day.Rogers’ ordeal lasted twonephew, Paul.days.Several years ago Rogers and his wife, Lamerle, returned to Ontonagon for a reunion with several of the others on the flight. Last week he returned with his nephew Paul, a friend Dave and a man who has become somewhat of an expert on airplane crashes in Michigan, Jeffrey Benya of Ann Arbor.The men hiked into the spot of the crash and said there is still debris around the site. One tire is embedded in a tree which has grown up around it. The men said it was a very difficult hike through underbrush and fallen trees and roots.Another Crash SurvivedThe crash in the Porkies was not the last for Rogers, however. Four months later on Aug. 13, 1944, the same crew was on a run over Bordeaux, France, when their B-17 was shot down. Rogers and the nine-man crew bailed out over enemy territory.The pilot, who made it out of the Porkies unscathed, died in the crash.Five crewmen were taken prisoner by the Germans, butthe ground outside a small city, “were grabbed and hauled into a hole where our clothes were pulled off and we were given regular clothes by the underground.”Rogers said they were housed in various homes for 5 2 weeks until the area was liberated.Five years ago, Rogers and nephew Paul returned to France for the 60th anniversary of the invasion and will return again for the 65th this year.“Those people love Americans,” Rogers said, adding that many of them said, “You gave us freedom.”Paul sported a hat of the Air Force Escape and Evasion Society. Its membership has shrunk by more than 1,000 as the World War II veterans age. The society brings people who helped harbor air force personnel from the Germans to the United States for visits and in turn, visits their country.Time has slowed the step of Rogers, but it hasn’t dulled the memory of his first visit to the Porcupine Mountains in April1944.
Newspaper Details
Ironwood Daily Globe
Ironwood, Michigan, US
Mon, May 18, 2009
Page 3
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USA 08 Nov 2020
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