World War II Chronicle: December 20, 1941

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Lt. Randall D. Keator (see page 3), credited with the first aerial victory over the Philippines, has a rather interesting story and was incredibly lucky to have survived the war — much less his first dogfight. After Keator shot down his first A6M2 Zero, another enemy fighter jumped on his tail. He put his P-40 Warhwak into a dive, but having forgotten to buckle his seatbelt, Keator slid forward in the cockpit and blacked out. Fortunately, the enemy didn’t take him out and Keator came to with his P-40 flying level at 19,000 feet. He tried multiple times to land, but Clark Field was badly shot up. He finally managed to put his fighter down on the edge of the runway, not knowing that American anti-aircraft gunners had mistaken him for a Japanese fighter and had been shooting at him the entire time… Sports section begins on page 26

Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 20 December 1941. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1941-12-20/ed-1/