The Fighter Pilot Who Refused to Die

Book excerpt: "The Fighter Pilot Who Refused To Die, The Authorized Biography of The Lt. Col. (Ret) Richard Suehr." This is the story of a fighter pilot who crashed his plane twice during combat missions in World War ll. In his first crash at Brisbane, Australia he was lost in the jungle for ten days. Alone in the jungle, he survived an alligator attack, avoided death by wild buffaloes, and slept in tree tops. He stayed alive by eating wild fruits and vegetation before crews from a passing train rescued him. Two years later in the Philippines Islands, his P-38 fighter plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean at 250 miles per hour. He survived the crash and swam safely ashore. The Army organized a search party over the Pacific Ocean for his remains, but the pilots found nothing. His family received death notification telegrams, and letters of condolence from the Army. Lt. Col. Suehr survived the crash, and fishermen from the Philippines rescued him from an uninhabited island. He lived in the Philippine with guerrilla fighters before the US Army found him. He is the only man to read his own obituary in the local newspaper.