Wilfred “;Fred”; Toczko, after his adventure at Hickam Field on Dec. 7, 1941, was accepted for military flight training on the mainland, eventually becoming a bomber pilot in England. The Pearl Harbor attack, it turned out, wasn't his closest call.

A couple of weeks after D-Day, during a maximum-effort raid over Berlin, Toczko's B-24 was nailed by flak and began to burn. He bailed out of the bomb bay while the flaming B-24 skidded in a flat spin above him. Finally free of the hurtling debris, Toczko pulled the ripcord as Germans on the ground opened up, shredding his parachute. Falling heavily, he hit ground in a German airfield as the screaming bomber exploded only a few hundred feet away.

“;I couldn't get up—I was afraid they'd shoot me—and finally some fellow came out and nudged me with his boot and pointed his pistol at me,”; recalled Toczko. “;I learned two of the crew were killed, two more wounded. We wound up in the Hermann Goering Luftwaffe hospital, the best treatment center they had!

“;The most terrifying experiences of my life were in that hospital. The Americans came over by day and dropped bombs, the British by night—dropping earthquake bombs that shook everything. For the first week, I was bedridden, so I couldn't get down to the air-raid shelter.”;

Moved to a POW camp just inside Poland—the camp where the Great Escape took place—Toczko was advised not to try anything, as the 50 prisoners who escaped were all executed.

“;In January of 1945 the Russians got within 20 kilometers, and they moved us out, marched us 100 miles in below-zero temperature, then put us in boxcars, 60 POWs per boxcar. Moved us to a camp near Munich, about 10 kilometers from the Dachau extermination camp.

“;Eventually, Gen. Patton drove up to the gate in his shellacked jeep, and we were liberated. But they didn't want us to leave camp. I wandered over to the main gate, and there was a jeep with a helmet and jacket in it, so I put on the helmet and jacket and drove off.

“;I hitchhiked to the air base at Regensberg, and there to Frankfurt. The only ID I had was my prison card and German dog tags, and the MPs told me to hang around. A hot shower and more food!

“;I asked to go back to my old unit in England and was told there was no authorization. I walked out on the flight line, and there was an airplane loading up. Where you going? Paris. OK, so we flew to Paris, and I asked where the POWs were being assembled. At Camp Lucky Strike, in Le Havre. How do I get up there? Oh, we've got a vehicle going that way.

“;I had to do a lot of explaining. They finally accepted me and issued me a temporary card and clothes and paycheck.”;

POWs were loaded onto transports, part of the last convoy to leave Europe in WWII. “;But in the North Atlantic the seas were miserable, and we got rammed in the bow by a Norwegian tanker. They brought this escort carrier alongside and dropped nets, and advised us to climb onto the carrier deck. But the seas were too heavy, and the ships were heaving against each other. So they closed the watertight doors on the Liberty ship's bow and backed it up in reverse all the way to the States.”;

After further identity checks in Fort Dix, N.J., Toczko was given 30 days' leave and was reunited with his family in Connecticut. He stayed in the Air Force and government service as an intelligence officer.

At age 49, Toczko retired for good, and “;I haven't worked for anyone since.”; He lived around the world in Spain, Germany, New Zealand and ended up in Key West, sailing a 40-foot sloop around the Bahamas. He currently lives in Arizona.