received an Army commission. He held the Unit Citation, the Air Medal with three clusters, the European and Middle East Theatre of Operations Ribbon, the American Defense Ribbon and the World War II Victory Medal. 29 July The first Swedish pilot to use an ejection seat to escape a crippled aircraft, Lt. Bengt Johansson (who later changed his name to Järkenstedt), saved himself when his Saab J 21A-1 of 2 Divisionen, F9 Wing out of Säve collided with a FFVS J 22 of another F9 Division during naval gunnery-attack practice. While climbing after a gunnery pass, the J 21 was struck by the pursuing J 22 (shearing off one of its twin tails). With control lost, Johansson jettisoned canopy and ejected; the other pilot also bailed out of the crippled J 22. Both parachuted into the sea, where they were rescued by a Swedish navy destroyer. The contemporary Swedish press described the incident as a first, because the 13 January 1942 ejection by German Helmut Schenk from a Heinkel He 280 was little-known at the time. 5 August The second of 14 built, Douglas C-74 Globemaster 42-65403 (c/n 13914) crashed in Torrance, California when it lost a wing during an overload dive test. All four crew members bailed out. 16 August Captain Elmer Lee Belcher Jr. of Roanoke, Alabama was killed in a crash near Salinas, Ecuador. Belcher, stationed at France Field Canal Zone with the 20th Fighter Squadron of the Sixth Air Force, was flying P-47D 44-40191 by instruments in bad weather. 20 August A captured Messerschmitt Me 262A, Wrknr. 111711, FE-0107, 711, crashed Tuesday afternoon about two miles south of Xenia, Ohio, near Route 68. Test pilot Walter J. McAuley Jr. of the Flight Performance Section, Flight Test Division, Wright Field, Ohio, parachuted to safety. The new airframe had been surrendered on 31 March 1945 by Messerschmitt test pilot Hans Fay, who defected during a functional check flight rather than fly it to an operational unit (landing at Rhein-Main in Frankfurt). It was the first Me 262 to fall into Allied hands. 4 September First prototype Bell XP-83 44-84990, bailed back to Bell Aircraft Company by the USAAF as a ramjet testbed and modified with an engineer's station in the fuselage in lieu of the rear fuel tank and a pylon for a test ramjet under the starboard wing, caught fire in the ramjet on a flight out