- 2 days ago
Why three Navy airmen faced impossible odds after their torpedo bomber went down in the Pacific Ocean during WW2 — stranded in a 4×8-foot raft with no food, no water, and no rescue coming. This World War 2 story reveals what Harold Dixon, Gene Aldrich, and Tony Pastula discovered about survival that every manual said was impossible.
January 16, 1942. Chief Aviation Machinist's Mate Harold Dixon, piloting a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber from USS Enterprise, ran out of fuel 200 miles from the carrier. The plane sank in 30 seconds, taking all survival gear with it. Dixon, radioman Gene Aldrich (22), and bombardier Tony Pastula (24) inflated a rubber raft barely large enough for three men. Navy survival manuals said three to four days was the maximum anyone could survive without water. Medical experts called extended survival at sea "impossible" without food or rescue.
They were all wrong.
What Dixon faced that first night wasn't about waiting for rescue. It was about making choices that contradicted everything the Navy had taught about passive survival. When sharks circled the raft on day seven, the men had to decide: become prey or become predators. The Pacific Ocean was a
January 16, 1942. Chief Aviation Machinist's Mate Harold Dixon, piloting a Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber from USS Enterprise, ran out of fuel 200 miles from the carrier. The plane sank in 30 seconds, taking all survival gear with it. Dixon, radioman Gene Aldrich (22), and bombardier Tony Pastula (24) inflated a rubber raft barely large enough for three men. Navy survival manuals said three to four days was the maximum anyone could survive without water. Medical experts called extended survival at sea "impossible" without food or rescue.
They were all wrong.
What Dixon faced that first night wasn't about waiting for rescue. It was about making choices that contradicted everything the Navy had taught about passive survival. When sharks circled the raft on day seven, the men had to decide: become prey or become predators. The Pacific Ocean was a
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00:00At 11.30 a.m. on January 16, 1942, Chief Aviation Machinist Mate Harold Dixon pushed the throttle forward on
00:08his Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber,
00:11watching the gray expanse of the Pacific Ocean stretch endlessly beneath his wings as USS Enterprise disappeared behind him.
00:2041 years old, enlisted pilot with 16 years of Navy service, flying a reconnaissance mission 200 miles ahead of the
00:28carrier strike force with two men who trusted him to bring them home.
00:33The Japanese Imperial Navy controlled most of the Central Pacific by mid-January 1942,
00:39with patrol submarines and surface raiders operating within 500 miles of every American carrier position.
00:45Dixon checked his fuel gauge. The Devastator burned fuel at 85 gallons per hour.
00:52He had launched with a full load of 180 gallons. The math was simple and unforgiving.
00:58In his rear cockpit sat 22-year-old Radioman 3rd Class Gene Aldrich from Sykeston, Missouri, manning the radio set
01:07that would guide them back to Enterprise.
01:08Below him, lying in the bombardier position with his face pressed to the bombsite window,
01:14was 24-year-old Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Tony Postula from Youngstown, Ohio.
01:21The mission briefing had been straightforward.
01:24Scout 200 miles northwest, look for Japanese submarines, maintain radio silence to protect the carrier, return in three hours.
01:33Dixon had flown this type of patrol dozens of times since Pearl Harbor.
01:38The Devastator was slow, with a top speed of 206 miles per hour, and it was already obsolete in January
01:451942.
01:46But it was reliable. The Navy trusted it. Dixon trusted it.
01:52An hour into the patrol, something changed. The wind shifted.
01:56Dixon felt it immediately.
01:58The Devastator started drifting south. He made a correction.
02:02Then another.
02:03The navigation became harder.
02:05The Pacific looked the same in every direction.
02:08No islands. No ships.
02:11Just water and clouds and the occasional white cap on the surface below.
02:15Aldrich tried to raise Enterprise on the radio.
02:18Static.
02:19He adjusted the frequency.
02:21More static.
02:22The carrier had moved.
02:24Or the Devastator had drifted farther than Dixon realized.
02:28Either way, they were alone in the largest ocean on Earth, with no radio contact and fuel burning away at
02:3585 gallons per hour.
02:37Dixon made a decision.
02:39Turn east.
02:41Head back toward where Enterprise should be.
02:43Keep the fuel mixture lean.
02:45Fly at the most efficient altitude.
02:48Stretch every gallon as far as it would go.
02:51He checked the fuel gauge again.
02:53Half full.
02:54Maybe 90 gallons left.
02:57Enough for just over an hour of flight time.
03:00Pastula called up from the Bombardier Station.
03:02He had spotted something on the horizon.
03:05Dixon looked.
03:06Nothing.
03:08Just more ocean.
03:09Pastula insisted.
03:11Dixon banked the Devastator.
03:13Still nothing.
03:14The fuel gauge dropped lower.
03:1770 gallons.
03:19Then 60.
03:20The sun climbed higher in the sky.
03:22The Pacific remained empty.
03:25At 1.15 p.m., the Pratt & Whitney radial engine coughed once.
03:31Dixon felt it through the control stick.
03:33The cough came again.
03:35The fuel gauge showed 15 gallons.
03:38Maybe 20 minutes of flight time remaining.
03:41No carrier in sight.
03:43No land.
03:44No ships.
03:46Nothing but water stretching to the horizon in every direction.
03:50If you want to see how Dixon brought his crew through what came next,
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04:01Back to Dixon.
04:03The engine coughed a third time.
04:05Dixon made his final decision.
04:08He ordered Aldrich to prepare the life raft.
04:11He told Pastula to gather every piece of survival gear they could carry.
04:15The Devastator had maybe 10 minutes of fuel left.
04:18The nearest land was over 400 miles away.
04:22The Pacific Ocean was three miles deep beneath them.
04:26Dixon began his descent toward the water.
04:29The engine was still running.
04:30He had one chance to put the bomber down safely.
04:33If the Devastator broke apart on impact, they would sink with it.
04:37If it flipped over, they would drown before getting the raft deployed.
04:40And if they survived the ditching, they would be floating in the open ocean with no radio,
04:45no rescue coming, and the Japanese Navy somewhere nearby hunting for American ships.
04:50The Devastator dropped lower, 200 feet, 100 feet.
04:55Dixon could see individual waves now.
04:58The ocean was rougher than it had looked from altitude.
05:02Dixon leveled the Devastator at 50 feet above the water.
05:06The waves were running four to five feet high.
05:09He picked a spot between two swells and cut the engine.
05:12The bomber glided for three seconds.
05:15Then the belly hit the Pacific.
05:17The impact threw Aldrich forward against his radio set.
05:21Pistula slammed into the bomb site.
05:23Dixon felt the control stick rip from his hands as the Devastator skipped once, twice,
05:29then settled into the water.
05:31The bomber floated.
05:33For exactly 12 seconds.
05:36Dixon unbuckled and stood up in the cockpit.
05:39Water was already pouring in through the seams.
05:42Pistula passed him the yellow rubber life raft package.
05:45Dixon pulled the inflation cord.
05:48Nothing happened.
05:49He pulled again.
05:51The CO2 canister refused to trigger.
05:53The left wing started sinking.
05:56Dixon stepped onto it, still holding the uninflated raft.
06:00The wing tilted steeper.
06:02Then the wing went under.
06:03Dixon dropped into the Pacific Ocean up to his chest.
06:07The water was cold.
06:09Not freezing, but cold enough to steal his breath.
06:12He grabbed his life jacket and held onto the raft package with both hands.
06:17Behind him, the Devastator's tail lifted into the air.
06:21Aldrich and Pistula scrambled out of their positions.
06:23They had maybe 15 seconds before the bomber pulled them down.
06:27The Devastator sank like someone had opened a drain beneath it.
06:31Dixon watched the tail rise higher.
06:33Then the entire aircraft slipped beneath the surface and vanished.
06:38Three miles of ocean opened up underneath them.
06:41Everything they had carefully assembled for survival went with the plane.
06:45The emergency radio.
06:46The flares.
06:47The survival rations.
06:49The water containers.
06:50All of it gone in less than 30 seconds.
06:54Dixon floated in his life jacket and looked at the raft package in his hands.
06:58It was still not inflated.
07:01Aldrich and Pistula treaded water nearby.
07:03The sun was directly overhead now.
07:06The swells lifted them up and dropped them down every few seconds.
07:11Dixon found the CO2 canister and tried the trigger mechanism again.
07:15This time it worked.
07:16The rubber began inflating.
07:18But it came up upside down.
07:20For the next 20 minutes, the three men struggled with the overturned raft while the Pacific swells knocked them in
07:26different directions.
07:28The raft was 4 feet wide and 8 feet long when properly inflated.
07:32Upside down, it was just a slippery rubber obstacle they could not flip over.
07:37Darkness was coming.
07:38Dixon knew that.
07:39They had maybe two hours of daylight left.
07:42Pistula had an idea.
07:44He pulled off his shirt and tied it to the cord that ran along the edge of the raft.
07:49Aldrich did the same.
07:50They made a crude rope from their shirts and threw it across the beam of the raft.
07:54Then they swam to the other side, found their rope, and pulled while bracing against the near edge.
08:00The leverage was enough.
08:02The raft flipped over and landed right side up on the water with a slap they could hear over the
08:07sound of the waves.
08:08All three men hauled themselves over the sides and collapsed on the rubber floor.
08:13They were inside the raft.
08:14They were alive.
08:15But they were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no way to signal for help and no idea
08:21where the nearest land might be.
08:22Dixon sat up and made an inventory.
08:25Aldrich had kept his pocket knife.
08:27Pistula had a police whistle.
08:29Dixon still had his service pistol, a .45 caliber automatic with three magazines.
08:34They had a small can of rubber cement for patching the raft.
08:38They had a pair of pliers.
08:39They had two pneumatic life jackets.
08:41And they had the wet clothes they were wearing.
08:44That was everything.
08:45No food.
08:46No water.
08:47No compass.
08:48No map.
08:49No radio.
08:51The sun dropped toward the horizon.
08:53The first night was coming.
08:54Dixon looked at his crew.
08:56Aldrich was shivering despite the tropical heat.
08:59Pistula was staring at the empty ocean around them.
09:02Neither man had said anything since climbing into the raft.
09:05The raft measured 80 inches long by 40 inches wide on the inside.
09:09Three grown men in a space smaller than a twin mattress.
09:13Dixon tried to find a position where all three of them could lie down.
09:16It was impossible.
09:18Someone's legs always ended up on top of someone else.
09:21The rubber floor provided no cushioning.
09:24Every wave that hit the raft felt like someone striking the bottom with a baseball bat.
09:28Night fell.
09:29The temperature dropped.
09:31The swells grew larger.
09:32Water sloshed over the sides every few minutes.
09:36Dixon, Aldrich, and Pistula huddled together for warmth.
09:40But the wet clothes and constant spray from the waves made it impossible to get dry.
09:45None of them slept.
09:46The Pacific had them now.
09:48And the Pacific was just beginning to show them what 34 days without food or water would feel like.
09:55Dawn broke on January 17th.
09:58Dixon opened his eyes and saw nothing but ocean in every direction.
10:02The raft had drifted during the night.
10:04How far, he had no way to know.
10:07The three men were soaked from the spray and shivering despite the tropical latitude.
10:12Aldrich's lips were already cracking from the salt water.
10:15Pistula's face was bright red from the sun exposure the day before.
10:19Dixon understood their situation with complete clarity.
10:22USS Enterprise would search for them.
10:25But the carrier had no idea where they had gone down.
10:28The Devastator had been out of radio contact for over two hours before ditching.
10:32The search area would be massive.
10:35And Enterprise could not stay in one place too long.
10:37The Japanese were hunting for American carriers.
10:41Enterprise would search for maybe two days, then move on.
10:45At 9.20 a.m., they heard it.
10:48The sound of aircraft engines.
10:50Dixon looked up and saw a Navy dive bomber making a search pattern about half a mile to the north.
10:56All three men started waving their arms.
10:59Pistula blew the police whistle until his lungs gave out.
11:02Aldrich stripped off his white undershirt and waved it over his head.
11:06The dive bomber continued on its course and disappeared over the horizon.
11:11The pilot never saw them.
11:13The raft was yellow rubber on a gray-blue ocean.
11:16From 500 feet of altitude, it would look like a piece of debris or a white cap on a wave.
11:22Dixon realized they were invisible to aerial search.
11:26Even if aircraft flew directly overhead, the chances of being spotted were almost zero.
11:32The Navy would search for another day, maybe two.
11:35Then they would declare the crew lost at sea and move on.
11:39Thirst became the immediate problem.
11:41The human body can survive three weeks without food.
11:45It can only survive three to four days without water.
11:48All three men had swallowed salt water during the ditching and the struggle with the raft.
11:53The salt accelerated dehydration.
11:56By mid-morning on the 17th, Dixon's tongue felt thick in his mouth.
12:01Aldrich kept licking his lips, which only made the cracking worse.
12:05The sun climbed higher.
12:06There was no shade in the raft.
12:09The rubber absorbed heat and turned the interior into an oven.
12:13Dixon estimated the temperature inside the raft reached 110 degrees by noon.
12:18The men stripped down to their underwear to reduce heat retention.
12:22The sun burned their exposed skin immediately.
12:26Within two hours, all three had severe sunburn across their shoulders and backs.
12:31By late afternoon, Dixon made a decision about navigation.
12:35He knew the prevailing winds in the central Pacific blew from east to west.
12:40If they drifted with the wind, they would eventually reach the Marshall or Gilbert Islands.
12:45But those islands were occupied by the Japanese.
12:49The alternative was to try steering south and east toward the Phoenix or Ellis Islands,
12:54which were still controlled by the British or Americans.
12:58The problem was, they had no oars and no sail.
13:02Dixon took off his shoes.
13:04They were leather, Navy-issue brogans, heavy and stiff.
13:08He showed Aldrich and Pastula how to use them as crude paddles.
13:12The men could reach over the side of the raft and pull water toward them,
13:16creating a slight directional force.
13:18It was exhausting work.
13:21After an hour of paddling with the shoes,
13:23all three men were gasping and their arms burned with fatigue.
13:28Dixon calculated they had moved the raft maybe 200 yards.
13:31At that rate, it would take months to reach land.
13:35The second night came.
13:36Still no water.
13:38The men's lips were badly cracked now.
13:40Dixon's mouth was so dry, he could barely move his tongue.
13:45Aldrich lay in the bottom of the raft and stared at the stars.
13:49Pastula kept checking the horizon for ships that were not there.
13:52The swells continued to batter the raft every few seconds.
13:57Still no one slept.
13:59January 18th arrived.
14:0148 hours since the ditching.
14:03Still no rain.
14:05The sun rose and turned the raft into an oven again.
14:08Dixon knew the human body would start shutting down soon without water.
14:12Kidney function would fail first.
14:14Then confusion and hallucinations would begin.
14:17After that came unconsciousness and death.
14:20They had maybe 36 hours left before the thirst became fatal.
14:24At 2 p.m., dark clouds appeared on the eastern horizon.
14:28Dixon watched them build.
14:30A storm was coming.
14:32Storms meant rain.
14:34Rain meant water.
14:35But storms also meant high seas and wind that could flip the raft or tear it apart.
14:41The clouds moved closer.
14:43The wind picked up.
14:44The swells grew from 4 feet to 6 feet to 8 feet high.
14:49The storm hit the raft at 4.15 p.m.
14:52Rain came down in sheets.
14:54All three men opened their mouths and drank.
14:57The fresh water tasted like salvation.
15:00They had no containers to store it, so they drank as much as they could hold.
15:04The rain lasted 17 minutes.
15:07Then it stopped and the clouds moved on.
15:09The storm had given them water, but it had also pushed the raft 50 miles farther from
15:14where Enterprise might still be searching, and it had ripped away one of Dixon's shoes
15:19that they had been using as a paddle.
15:21Now they had even less ability to control their direction.
15:24Night fell on January 18th.
15:27The men had water in their stomachs for the first time in two days, but they still had no
15:32food, and they still had no idea how far they were from land or how long the raft would
15:37hold together in the Pacific swells.
15:41January 19th.
15:43Three days adrift.
15:44The thirst had returned with savage intensity.
15:47The brief rain had bought them time, but the human body processes water quickly in tropical
15:52heat.
15:53By mid-morning, all three men were desperate for moisture again.
15:57Dixon noticed Aldrich staring at the ocean with a strange expression.
16:00He recognized the look.
16:02The radio man was thinking about drinking salt water.
16:05Dixon had read the survival manuals.
16:07Drinking salt water would kill them faster than thirst.
16:10The salt would pull fluid from their cells and accelerate kidney failure.
16:14He told Aldrich to stop looking at the water.
16:17Aldrich nodded but kept staring anyway.
16:19The temptation was becoming overwhelming.
16:22Hunger joined the thirst.
16:24The human stomach can adapt to starvation over several days, but the initial hunger is agonizing.
16:30Dixon's stomach cramped constantly.
16:32Pastula kept swallowing as if trying to digest something that was not there.
16:36None of them had eaten since the morning of January 16th, over 70 hours ago.
16:41At midday on the 19th, fish appeared.
16:44A small school of them, maybe 20 or 30, swimming just beneath the surface around the raft.
16:49They were curious about this strange yellow object floating in their territory.
16:54The fish came close enough to touch.
16:56Aldrich reached over the side and tried to grab one.
16:59The fish darted away.
17:00He tried again.
17:02Same result.
17:03The fish were fast and the men were weak and slow from dehydration.
17:06Aldrich pulled out his pocket knife.
17:09He leaned over the edge and held the knife just under the surface, waiting.
17:13A fish swam close.
17:15Aldrich stabbed down.
17:16He missed.
17:18Another fish approached.
17:19He stabbed again.
17:20This time the blade connected.
17:22The fish thrashed.
17:24Aldrich grabbed it and flipped it into the raft before it could escape.
17:27The fish was maybe eight inches long, silver, and desperate to get back in the water.
17:32Dixon grabbed the pliers and killed the fish by crushing its skull.
17:35Then he used the pocket knife to scale it.
17:38The three men divided every piece of edible flesh among them.
17:42Raw fish.
17:43No fire.
17:44No seasoning.
17:45Just protein and moisture.
17:47It tasted better than anything Dixon had eaten in his entire life.
17:51The fish gave them maybe two ounces of flesh each, but it was food.
17:56The fish also gave them hope.
17:58If they could catch one, they could catch more.
18:01Dixon understood they might be in this raft for weeks.
18:04The realization was settling in now.
18:07Enterprise was gone.
18:08The Navy had moved on.
18:10No rescue was coming.
18:12They would have to save themselves or die trying.
18:15January 20th.
18:17Still no rain.
18:18The men's skin was blistering from sun exposure.
18:21Large patches of Dixon's back had turned dark red and then started peeling.
18:26Aldrich's face was swollen from sunburn.
18:28Pistula's lips had cracked so badly they bled when he tried to speak.
18:33All three men had lost noticeable weight.
18:35Their ribs were starting to show.
18:37A bird appeared.
18:39An albatross, huge and white, circling the raft.
18:43It came lower.
18:44Lower still.
18:45Then it landed on the edge of the raft and folded its wings.
18:49The bird weighed maybe 15 pounds.
18:51It represented more food than the three men had seen since ditching.
18:56Aldrich pulled out the .45 caliber pistol.
18:59He aimed carefully.
19:00One shot.
19:01The sound was deafening across the empty ocean.
19:04The albatross dropped dead.
19:06The men pulled it into the raft and immediately began plucking feathers.
19:10Underneath was meat.
19:12Real meat.
19:13Not just a few ounces from a small fish.
19:16They divided the bird into three portions and ate everything except the bones and feathers.
19:21The meat was tough and fishy tasting, but it was substantial protein.
19:25The gunshot had another effect.
19:27It attracted sharks.
19:29January 21st.
19:31Dawn revealed three large shadows circling the raft.
19:35Bull sharks, maybe six feet long, drawn by the blood from the albatross.
19:39They came closer.
19:41One of them bumped the bottom of the raft.
19:43Dixon felt the impact through the rubber floor.
19:45The shark bumped again.
19:47Harder this time.
19:48The men pulled their arms and legs away from the edges.
19:51Aldrich made a decision.
19:53If the sharks wanted to investigate the raft, they would become food.
19:57He tied a cord from his life jacket around his wrist and leaned over the side with the
20:02pocket knife ready.
20:03A shark came close.
20:06Aldrich stabbed down and hit it in the gills.
20:08The shark thrashed.
20:10Aldrich held on.
20:11The other two men grabbed him and pulled.
20:13The shark was four feet long and weighed at least 60 pounds.
20:17It came halfway into the raft before the knife pulled free and it slid back into the water
20:23trailing blood.
20:24Another shark approached.
20:25This time, Aldrich was ready.
20:28He struck it in the same place, the gills, where the knife could penetrate.
20:32This shark did not escape.
20:34All three men hauled it aboard.
20:37The shark thrashed in the bottom of the raft for 30 seconds before Pistula killed it with
20:42the pliers.
20:43Dixon used the pocket knife to cut open the shark's belly.
20:46Inside was the liver, dark red and rich.
20:49They had all heard that shark liver contained vitamins.
20:53They ate it first.
20:54Then they carved the shark into strips and ate the meat raw.
20:58The shark meat was dense and oily.
21:00It sat heavy in their stomachs.
21:02But it was food.
21:04And food meant survival.
21:06The men had learned something crucial in five days adrift.
21:09The ocean could kill them.
21:11But the ocean could also feed them.
21:15By January 23rd, the shark meat had given the men strength, but created a new problem.
21:21The oily flesh made them desperately thirsty.
21:24Their bodies needed water to process the protein and fat.
21:27But no rain had fallen since the 18th.
21:30Five days without fresh water.
21:32Dixon's urine had turned dark brown, a sign of severe dehydration.
21:37Aldrich had stopped urinating entirely.
21:39His kidneys were beginning to fail.
21:41The men had no choice.
21:42They began drinking their own urine.
21:45Dixon went first, collecting the liquid in his cupped hands and forcing himself to swallow.
21:50It was warm and bitter and foul-tasting, but it contained some moisture and no salt.
21:56Aldrich and Pastula followed.
21:57The urine provided minimal hydration, just enough to keep their kidneys functioning for another day or two.
22:03The sun continued its assault.
22:06By the eighth day adrift, all three men had second-degree burns covering their shoulders, backs, and legs.
22:12The burns cracked open and became infected from the constant saltwater spray.
22:17Dixon's back looked like raw meat.
22:19At night, every movement reopened the wounds.
22:21At night, they could not lie on their backs because the pain was unbearable.
22:26Sleep deprivation was destroying them as surely as thirst and hunger.
22:30The raft was too small for three men to sleep simultaneously.
22:34The constant battering from waves made rest impossible.
22:37By January 24th, Dixon estimated he had slept a total of maybe three hours since ditching on the 16th.
22:44His mind was starting to play tricks.
22:46He saw ships on the horizon that were not there.
22:49He heard aircraft engines in the distance that did not exist.
22:53January 25th, nine days adrift.
22:56Another storm appeared on the horizon.
22:59This one was larger than the first.
23:01The clouds were black, and the wind was already building when the storm was still miles away.
23:06Dixon knew what was coming.
23:08He ordered Aldrich and Pastula to tie themselves to the raft with cords made from their remaining clothes.
23:13If the raft flipped, they needed to stay attached or they would be separated and lost.
23:19The storm hit at 3 p.m.
23:21The wind reached 40 miles per hour.
23:23The swells grew to 12 feet high.
23:26Rain came down so hard it felt like being struck with pebbles.
23:29The men opened their mouths and drank frantically.
23:33They had no containers, so they drank until their stomachs were bloated and painful.
23:38The fresh water was life itself.
23:40But the storm also tried to kill them.
23:43A wave lifted the raft 15 feet into the air and slammed it down into a trough.
23:48The impact knocked Pastula unconscious for several seconds.
23:52Another wave broke over the raft and filled it with 200 pounds of seawater.
23:56The men bailed with their hands, desperately trying to keep the raft from sinking under the weight.
24:02The storm lasted 47 minutes.
24:05When it passed, the raft was still afloat, but the men were barely conscious from exhaustion.
24:11January 27th, 11 days adrift.
24:14The men had developed saltwater sores on their hands and feet from constant immersion.
24:19The sores were open wounds that would not heal.
24:22Every time they reached into the ocean to catch fish or bale water, the salt burned like acid in the
24:28wounds.
24:29Aldrich's hands were so badly infected, he could barely grip the pocket knife.
24:34Weight loss had accelerated.
24:36Dixon estimated he had lost 25 pounds.
24:39His belt no longer held up his pants.
24:41His ribs stuck out like bars on a cage.
24:45Aldrich had lost even more weight because he was younger and had less body fat to begin with.
24:50The radio man looked skeletal.
24:52His cheekbones protruded and his eyes had sunk deep into his skull.
24:57The psychological torture was becoming worse than the physical suffering.
25:01Three men in a space 80 inches by 40 inches.
25:04No privacy.
25:05No relief.
25:07No escape.
25:07They could not get away from each other even for a moment.
25:11Every breath, every movement, every sound the other men made became an irritation.
25:17Dixon felt himself growing angry at Aldrich for the way he cleared his throat.
25:21Postula snapped at Dixon for shifting position in the raft.
25:24The men were beginning to turn on each other.
25:28January 30th, 14 days adrift, two weeks in the raft.
25:32The men had drifted approximately 400 miles from where the Devastator went down.
25:38Dixon had no way to know this, but he could feel it.
25:41The ocean currents had pushed them steadily southwest.
25:44He tried to calculate their position based on the sun and stars, but without instruments or charts, it was just
25:50guesswork.
25:51Another bird landed on the raft.
25:54This time, it was a smaller seabird, maybe three pounds.
25:58Postula grabbed it with his bare hands before it could take off again.
26:01They killed it, plucked it, and ate it raw within five minutes.
26:05The bird provided barely enough meat for one man, but divided among three, it was just a few bites each.
26:12Still, it was protein.
26:13February 1st, 16 days in the raft.
26:17Over two weeks since they had seen another human being or heard a human voice besides their own.
26:23The isolation was maddening.
26:25Dixon found himself talking to the ocean, asking it questions, begging it for mercy.
26:31He knew this was a sign of mental deterioration, but he could not stop himself.
26:36The raft itself was showing signs of wear.
26:38Small leaks had developed in two places where the rubber had worn thin from constant flexing.
26:44The men used the rubber cement to patch them, but the cement supply was running low.
26:49If the raft developed a major tear, they would have no way to fix it.
26:55February 3rd, 18 days adrift.
26:58The men had stopped counting hours.
27:00Time had become meaningless.
27:02There was only day and night, sun and darkness, thirst and brief relief when rain came.
27:08Dixon's sense of dates was slipping.
27:10He had to carve marks into the rubber with the pocket knife to keep track, but even that system was
27:15becoming confused.
27:17Hallucinations had started.
27:18Aldrich saw land on the horizon multiple times per day.
27:22Mountains and beaches that existed only in his failing mind.
27:25Pastula heard voices calling to them from the water.
27:28Dixon saw his wife standing on the raft, clear as day, before she vanished.
27:33The men had learned not to react when someone reported seeing something impossible.
27:38They just nodded and stayed quiet.
27:40The human body was cannibalizing itself now.
27:43With almost no food intake for 18 days, their muscles were breaking down to provide energy for vital organs.
27:50Dixon's legs had become thin as broomsticks.
27:53His shoulder blades jutted out like wings.
27:55When he touched his own ribs, he could feel each individual bone with no fat layer between skin and skeleton.
28:03Bowel movements had stopped days ago.
28:05There was nothing to expel.
28:07The men's digestive systems had essentially shut down.
28:10Their bodies were conserving every molecule of energy for the brain and heart.
28:15Everything else was being sacrificed.
28:17February 5th.
28:1920 days in the raft.
28:20The infections were spreading.
28:23Aldrich's hands had swollen to twice their normal size from the saltwater sores.
28:28Pastula had developed an infection in his left foot that made walking impossible.
28:32Not that there was anywhere to walk in the raft.
28:35Dixon's back was covered in open wounds that attracted flies during the day.
28:39The flies laid eggs in the wounds.
28:41The men picked maggots from each other's backs every morning.
28:45But the maggots gave Dixon an idea.
28:47Protein was protein.
28:49He tried eating several of the larvae.
28:51They were disgusting but harmless.
28:54The other men watched him for signs of illness.
28:57When none appeared, they started eating the maggots too.
29:00It was perhaps 5 calories of nutrition, but 5 calories was better than 0.
29:06Another storm arrived on February 7th, the third major storm since ditching.
29:11This one brought winds near 50 miles per hour and waves that lifted the raft 20 feet into the air
29:17before slamming it down.
29:19Pastula was nearly thrown overboard.
29:22Dixon grabbed him at the last second and pulled him back.
29:25The storm lasted over an hour.
29:28When it ended, all three men were barely conscious.
29:31The storms were following a pattern.
29:34They appeared every 6 to 8 days, always from the east, always in the afternoon.
29:39The rain from the storms was keeping them alive.
29:42Without those periodic downpours, they would have died of dehydration before the 10th day.
29:48But the storms were also pushing them farther west, away from the islands Dixon hoped to reach.
29:54February 9th.
29:5524 days adrift, nearly 4 weeks in the raft.
29:59The men had lost all sense of their former lives.
30:02Dixon could barely remember what USS Enterprise looked like.
30:06The concept of a solid deck beneath his feet had become abstract.
30:11The raft was their entire world now.
30:13They had been in it so long, they could not imagine being anywhere else.
30:18Despair had set in.
30:19Aldrich stopped speaking entirely around February 8th.
30:23He just lay in the bottom of the raft and stared at the sky.
30:27Pastula talked to himself constantly, mumbling about food he used to eat and places he used to go.
30:33Dixon tried to maintain some discipline, some structure, but it was becoming harder every day.
30:39The sun rose on February 10th, 25 days since the Devastator went down.
30:44Over 3 weeks drifting in the central Pacific with no rescue, no land,
30:49no hope of survival that any rational person would accept.
30:54The men were skeletons wrapped in burned skin.
30:57Their minds were failing.
30:58Their bodies were shutting down.
31:00Death would be a mercy.
31:02But then, on the afternoon of February 10th, something changed.
31:06The wind shifted.
31:08Instead of blowing from the east, it came from the north.
31:11The shift was subtle, but Dixon felt it.
31:14A north wind in this part of the Pacific meant they were drifting into a different current.
31:19The current might push them toward the Phoenix Islands or even the Ellis Islands.
31:24Both island groups had inhabited atolls.
31:27People.
31:28Food.
31:29Fresh water.
31:31Rescue.
31:32Dixon did not tell the other men about the wind shift.
31:35He did not want to give them false hope.
31:37But he started watching the horizon more carefully, looking for birds, which meant land was near.
31:44Looking for changes in the water color, which meant shallow reefs.
31:48Looking for anything that suggested they were approaching the end of their drift across the Pacific.
31:53February 11th arrived.
31:55The men caught another fish.
31:58February 12th brought rain.
32:00February 13th was calm.
32:02The routine of survival continued, but the wind kept blowing from the north, and Dixon kept watching the horizon.
32:10And somewhere deep inside his failing body, Hope tried to take root one more time.
32:17February 14th.
32:1929 days adrift.
32:22Dixon woke to find Aldrich lying motionless in the bottom of the raft.
32:26The radioman's breathing was shallow and irregular.
32:29His pulse was weak.
32:30The infections in his hands had spread up his forearms.
32:34Red streaks ran from his wrists to his elbows, a clear sign of blood poisoning.
32:40Without antibiotics, Aldrich would be dead within days.
32:45Pistula was in marginally better condition, but not by much.
32:49The bombardier could no longer stand even when holding onto the raft's edge.
32:53His legs had atrophied from weeks of disuse and starvation.
32:57His left foot was grotesquely swollen from the infection.
33:00When Dixon touched it, Pistula screamed.
33:04Dixon himself had perhaps a week left, maybe less.
33:08His kidneys were failing.
33:09He had not urinated in two days.
33:12His body was shutting down systems one by one, conserving energy for the brain and heart for as long as
33:18possible.
33:19He estimated he had lost 40 pounds since January 16th.
33:23His weight had dropped from 175 pounds to maybe 135.
33:29The men were naked now.
33:31Their clothes had rotted away or been used for patches and cords.
33:35The tropical sun had burned their skin black in some places and left it peeling and raw in others.
33:41They looked like corpses that had not yet realized they were dead.
33:46February 15th.
33:48A bird appeared, not circling overhead, but sitting on the water about 50 yards from the raft.
33:55Dixon watched it.
33:57The bird was diving for fish, which meant the water was relatively shallow.
34:02Shallow water meant reefs.
34:04Reefs meant land was somewhere nearby.
34:06He did not tell the others.
34:08They were too far gone to understand, and he was too weak to explain.
34:13More birds appeared over the next six hours.
34:16First one, then three, then a dozen.
34:19They were feeding in the same area, diving repeatedly.
34:24Dixon knew what this meant, but his mind refused to accept it.
34:28After 29 days of empty ocean, the possibility of land seemed like another hallucination.
34:34The wind continued blowing from the north.
34:36The raft drifted south.
34:38The water color changed from deep blue to a lighter shade of blue-green.
34:43Definitely shallow water now.
34:45Dixon's heart rate increased despite his exhaustion.
34:48Land was close.
34:50How close, he could not tell.
34:52But close enough that the ocean floor was rising toward the surface.
34:57February 16th.
34:5930 days in the raft.
35:01Exactly one month since the devastator ditched.
35:05Aldrich regained consciousness around dawn, but could not speak.
35:08His tongue was swollen from dehydration, and his lips had cracked so deeply they no longer
35:14moved properly.
35:15Pastula was muttering about cornfields.
35:18Dixon was too exhausted to respond.
35:21The sky darkened in the afternoon.
35:23Another storm was building.
35:25The fourth major storm since ditching.
35:27This one came from the northeast, a different direction than the previous three.
35:32The winds reached 40 miles per hour.
35:35The rain fell in torrents.
35:37The men drank until they vomited, then drank more.
35:41The storm pushed the raft violently to the southwest.
35:44When the storm cleared, the wind continued from the northeast, strong and steady.
35:50The raft was moving faster now, pushed by both wind and current.
35:55Dixon estimated they were traveling three to four miles per hour.
35:59In open ocean, that speed meant nothing.
36:02But if land was nearby, it meant they might reach it before they died.
36:07February 17th.
36:09The sun rose on the 31st day.
36:12Aldrich was still alive, but unresponsive.
36:15Pastula had stopped muttering and lay silent.
36:18Dixon's vision was beginning to fail.
36:21He saw dark spots that floated across his field of view.
36:24His hearing was muffled, as if his ears were filled with water.
36:28These were signs of multi-organ failure.
36:31The body shutting down.
36:33The waves changed.
36:35They were coming from a different direction now, breaking in a pattern that suggested obstruction.
36:41Dixon had spent enough time at sea to recognize the signs.
36:44There was land ahead.
36:46An island or an atoll blocking the waves and creating a different sea state.
36:51At 2 p.m. on February 17th, Aldrich spoke for the first time in days.
36:55His voice was a croak, barely audible.
36:58He said he saw corn.
37:00Dixon ignored him.
37:02Hallucinations about cornfields had become common.
37:05But then Aldrich spoke again.
37:07He said he saw something green.
37:10Dixon lifted his head and looked.
37:12At first he saw nothing, just ocean and sky.
37:15Then the raft crested a wave, and for one second he saw it.
37:19A thin line of green on the horizon.
37:22Palm trees.
37:23He was certain of it, not a hallucination.
37:27Real palm trees on a real island may be five miles away.
37:31The wind was pushing them toward it.
37:33But the wind was also pushing them past it.
37:36The island was to their left, and the current was carrying the raft parallel to the shore rather than toward
37:42it.
37:42If they drifted past, they would miss the island entirely and be swept back into open ocean.
37:48After 31 days adrift, they were about to miss their only chance at rescue by a matter of miles.
37:55Dixon grabbed what was left of Pastula's shirt and held it over the side as a crude sea anchor.
38:01The drag was minimal, but it was something.
38:04The raft slowed fractionally.
38:06The island grew larger.
38:08Palm trees became visible.
38:10Then a beach.
38:11Then individual rocks on the shoreline.
38:14The raft was going to hit the reef.
38:18The coral reef appeared 50 yards ahead.
38:21Dixon could see the waves breaking white against the sharp edge.
38:24The raft was moving too fast.
38:26If it hit the coral at this speed, the rubber would tear and they would be dumped into the surf
38:31with no strength to swim.
38:32But there was no way to stop.
38:34The current had them.
38:35The raft hit the outer reef at 4.30 p.m. on February 19th, 1942.
38:41The impact tore a six-inch gash in the bottom.
38:44Water poured in.
38:46Dixon grabbed Aldrich under the arms.
38:49Pastula somehow found the strength to hold on to the raft's edge.
38:52The waves lifted them up and threw them over the reef into the shallow lagoon beyond.
38:56The raft was sinking, but it had carried them past the worst of the coral.
39:01Dixon's feet touched sand.
39:02Actual solid ground for the first time in 33 days.
39:06He stood up in waist-deep water and pulled Aldrich toward shore.
39:11Pastula crawled on his hands and knees through the surf.
39:14The beach was 30 yards away.
39:16Dixon's legs gave out after 10 steps.
39:19He fell forward into the water.
39:21He got up and took five more steps.
39:23Fell again.
39:24The beach was closer now.
39:2620 yards.
39:27He could see palm trees clearly.
39:29Real palm trees, not hallucinations.
39:32He pulled Aldrich another few feet.
39:34Pastula was crawling beside them, still moving forward inch by inch.
39:38They reached the beach at 5.07 p.m.
39:41Dixon collapsed on the sand and lost consciousness.
39:44When he woke, it was dark and there were voices speaking a language he did not understand.
39:49Hands lifted him.
39:50He tried to fight but had no strength.
39:53The hands were gentle.
39:54Someone was giving him water.
39:56Real fresh water from a container, not rain caught in cupped palms.
40:00The island was Pukapuka Atoll, part of the Cook Islands administered by New Zealand.
40:05The native inhabitants had seen the raft wash through the reef and came to investigate.
40:10They carried the three skeletal Americans to their village and gave them food and water in careful amounts.
40:16Too much food at once would kill men in their condition.
40:20Dixon, Aldrich, and Pastula had drifted approximately 1,200 miles across the Pacific Ocean in 34 days.
40:28They had survived on two birds, perhaps a dozen small fish, one shark, rainwater, and their own urine.
40:36They had lost a combined total of over 100 pounds.
40:40All three had severe infections, second and third degree burns, and multiple organ systems in failure.
40:47The village had a radio.
40:49The islanders contacted New Zealand authorities who contacted the United States Navy.
40:53On February 27th, a consolidated PBY Catalina seaplane from USS Swan landed in the lagoon and picked up the three
41:02survivors.
41:03They were flown to American Samoa, then to Pearl Harbor for medical treatment.
41:07On March 18th, 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz presented Harold Dixon with the Navy Cross aboard USS Enterprise at Pearl Harbor.
41:18The citation praised Dixon for extreme heroism, exceptional determination, resourcefulness, skilled seamanship, excellent judgment, and the highest quality of leadership.
41:28Gene Aldrich and Tony Pastula each received presidential commendations for extraordinary courage, fortitude, strength of character, and exceptional endurance.
41:39Dixon was commissioned as an ensign later that year.
41:42He never flew another combat mission.
41:45He left active duty in 1946 and retired from the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant in 1950.
41:51He died in San Diego in 1987 at age 85.
41:57Gene Aldrich returned to duty and survived the war.
42:00He died in 1973.
42:02Tony Pastula also returned to service and survived.
42:06He died in 1982.
42:08The raft that saved their lives was sent to the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, where it remained
42:15on display for decades.
42:16It was later transferred to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, where it remains today as a testament
42:23to human endurance and the will to survive against impossible odds.
42:2734 days.
42:291,200 miles.
42:32Three men who refused to die in the Pacific Ocean.
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42:51Stories about Navy airmen who survived with nothing but a pocket knife and will to survive.
42:57Real people.
42:58Real heroism.
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