There also exists a tape of Bush being interviewed by Wead, as part of a set of interviews the author conducted with famous ï gures, including Jimmy Carter and former Israeli leader Menachem Begin. On that tape, Bush can be heard to refer clearly to White, and to mention that he saw that White was very much in the plane before bailing out:
One of them jumped out and his parachute streamed. They had ï ghter planes over us and they could see the chute open, and the other one" he was killed in the plane. You can see, [in] a torpedo bomber, the pilot is separate from the crew, but you can look over and see the turret, and he was just slumped over. [Emphasis mine.]
Another claim of Poppy's would later be challenged: that his plane was effectively crippled. In Looking Forward, a 1988 campaign book co-authored by Bush and campaign staffer Victor Gold, Poppy writes:
The ï "ak was the heaviest I'd ever ï "own into . . . Suddenly there was a jolt, as if a massive ï st had crunched into the belly of the plane. Smoke poured into the cockpit, and I could see ï "ames rippling across the crease of the wing, edging toward the fuel tanks.
Not so, said Chester Mierzejewski, the tail gunner in the plane directly ahead of Bush's. Mierzejewski came forward to challenge Bush after noticing inconsistencies in public accounts of Bush's mission that day. He was struck by how all the versions differed from what he saw.
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