A good landing is one you can walk away from

No, this is not a scene from any movie where the hero staggers away from a “good landing” on Mindoro, Philippine Islands, after being shot down by a Japanese Zero; it is an actual photo of Lt. S. F. Ford walking away from a virtually new Lockheed P-38L-5-LO Lightning that he crash-landed, probably some time after January 1945.

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The lieutenant was almost surely newly assigned to combat in the Pacific, but with his plane on fire, he managed to break away and pancake the burning fighter somewhere on Mindoro Island. He was quickly rescued by U.S. Army Tank Corps troops, largely indicated by the fresh signs of tanks having passed quite recently.