Vince Smith

On October 25, 1942, 1st Lt. Jack Conger shot down three A6M Zeros during a dogfight over Guadalcanal. He then pursued a fourth Zero, piloted by flying ace Petty Officer Second Class Shiro Ishikawa. Expending the last of his ammunition and determined to knock the plane out of the sky, Conger attempted to use his propellor to chop the tail rudder off Ishikawa's plane. Conger, misjudging the distance between his and Ishikawa's plane, rammed into it and ripped the entire tail off. Both planes then began falling out of the sky, and both pilots bailed out and parachuted into the sea. A Marine rescue boat picked Lieutenant Conger up out of the water, and Conger convinced the Marines not to shoot Ishikawa. Conger reached his hand out to pull Ishikawa aboard the boat, but Ishikawa attempted to shoot Conger with his Nambu pistol. When the waterlogged pistol misfired, Conger threw himself backward and injured his back. Ishikawa then attempted to shoot himself and the pistol misfired again. Conger hit Ishikawa over the head with a gas can and pulled him into the boat. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions, and in 1990, Conger met with Ishikawa at the National Museum of the Pacific War at Fredericksburg, Texas. Ishikawa thanked Conger for saving his life 48 years earlier at Guadalcanal, which allowed him to raise a family