Statement:  I was flying Yellow four on Lt HOLLINGSWORTH's wing. We were working a ground support mission when Lt HOLLINGSWORTH call at us. He said his 100 gallons left and was heading home. Yellow leader called on and told me to return with him. We had just come up from a road where we were looking for trucks and were only about 1000 feet when Lt HOLLINGSWORTH set course. We started to climb when I saw a puff of smoke in the plane and the canopy came off of his plane. I chapped my throttle to try to stay with him but I was past him and was out to the right. He was still in the cockpit. I was still trying to stay with him and sliding from one side to the other when I lost him for a few seconds. When I looked for him again, I could not find him. I then saw an explosion on the ground followed by a large fire with a lot of black smoke. By this time the flak was firing too close to me so I climbed up. I then dove to 5000 feet to see if the explosion I has seen was Lt HOLLINGSWORTH's plane but the flak started coming up again and I had to climb up out of range.

William WILLINGHAM        

last update: 12 Nov 04