"Nearly a month after being pitched from his Thunderbolt fighter over Northern New Guinea and struggling through jungle and mountain country, a young American pilot has reached safety.
Returning from a strike at Wewak, First-Lieut. Joseph Adamow of Philadelphia, ran into dirty weather. His Thunderbolt suddenly became uncontrollable and in a few moments plunged 6,000 feet.
"I decided it was time to get out." he said. "I pulled back the cockpit door and tried to drag myself out but got stuck. I remembered an old trick of kicking the stick forward with my foot. That shot the nose down and catapulted me out."
Parachuting down in heavy rain Adamow landed in a high tree and had to slide down its smooth bare trunk. Retrieving medical supplies and an emergency kit from his parachute, he had six chocolate bars and as he reckoned it would take him four weeks to reach Madang, he decided to eat a quarter of a bar a day.
He first made for a native garden he had seen from the air but could not find it. An aircraft came over searching for him but he had to stand helplessly and watch it fly away.
Wandering lost for weeks he wore out his boots and his flying clothes were tattered. Natives whom he encountered on the eighth day cooking a meal in their village, had apparently not seen a white man before. They fled but in the confusion left a baby and when some came back for it, Adamow persuaded them to give him food.
On the tenth day of his wanderings he found a pumpkin growing and ate it. Once again a search plane came over and missed his smoke signals. For the next few days he was shadowed by natives but, when their suspicions were allayed, they gave him corn and carried his pack until one day they met a native wearing an Angau belt. He brewed a drink with the remainder of his chocolate bars and the native mission boy, named Pope, guided him to a village where he was fed on eggs, bananas and chicken.
After an arduous journey through mountainous country, sometimes climbing almost sheer cliffs, they reached Pope's village where he was given a royal welcome. On the 20th day, Adamow reached the coast where a barge picked him up and took him to Madang."
