Word: kirsch
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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World War II's fighting men have told frankly how it feels to be afraid (TIME, Dec. 25). Last week, in a report to the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Lieut. Ralph E. Kirsch described not only how it feels but how fear in battle translates itself into bodily reactions...
...Lieut. Kirsch, a 29-year-old Navy flight surgeon, pursued his researches in the course of 21 combat flights over Jap-held islands in the Pacific. All were unusually dangerous missions on which, besides dropping bombs, the planes were required to hold a straight, level course to permit mapping and picture-taking...
...Scared as Hell." On his first combat flight, Lieut. Kirsch did nothing but find out for himself how battle fear feels. He was "literally 'scared as hell' from the time the aircraft neared the target area until it had passed well out of range of the island's defenses." His mouth was dry ("spitting cotton"), his hands were drenched in icy sweat, his heart beat so hard he could feel its throb. Over the target "there was a strong impulse to seek the shelter of any available armor plate in the cockpit. A sensation of helplessness left...
...never that frightened again. He credits most of this relative calm to the fact that on later flights he was busy making tests on the pilots and himself, ascribes very little of it to getting used to enemy fire. For a man never gets really used to enemy fire: Kirsch has records of a pilot who reacted similarly on his 8th, 15th, 22nd and 25th missions...
Blood Pressure and Breathing. Lieut. Kirsch's seat was in the forward cockpit just behind and between the two pilots. From there he took pilots' blood pressures, counted respirations by watching the rhythmic rise & fall of the little flow indicator ball in the oxygen control box (most flying was done at heights requiring masks), took pulses and armpit temperatures, watched for trembling, pallor, changes in pupil size. In all, he observed 16 different men during the ordeal by flak. Only three showed no fright reaction...