His six .50-caliber machine guns were loaded. Twenty-four hundred rounds. At thirty-eight thousand feet, every single one was useless.
May 10, 1945. Okinawa. A Japanese Ki-45 Nick is running a photo reconnaissance pass over the American fleet — mapping exact positions for the next kamikaze wave. Four Marine Corsairs scramble to intercept. Two turn back with engine failures. Captain Reusser empties his guns into the Nick, damages it, runs dry. First Lieutenant Robert Klingman closes in, squeezes the trigger — nothing. The gun oil has frozen solid at minus fifty-seven degrees.
Klingman looks at his propeller. Three aluminum blades spinning at two thousand RPM. He makes a decision that should have killed him.
Three passes. One dead stick landing. One destroyed propeller. And a Japanese reconnaissance plane in pieces on the ocean floor.
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