Flying Home on Fire: First Lieutenant William R. Lawley Jr. and the B 17 That Wouldn’t Quit

A dead copilot in the right-hand seat. A burning engine. A jammed bomb load. Eight wounded men in the back. On 20 February 1944, First Lieutenant William R. Lawley Jr. had every reason to bail out of his shattered B-17 over Nazi-occupied Europe—and two gravely injured crewmen who made that choice unthinkable. In this week’s Beyond the Call: Medal of Honor Stories feature from Dispatch: U.S. Military History Magazine, we follow the 23-year-old pilot from small-town Alabama to the frozen skies over Leipzig, where quiet resolve and stubborn courage turned a doomed mission into a fight to bring his crew home alive. If stories of leadership under impossible pressure speak to you, don’t miss this one in today’s Beyond the Call feature developed by Trackpads.com.