You know what's worse than being stranded on a mountain with no food?

Uh, listening to ads when you're trying to escape reality. Exactly. That's why we've got

you covered on Patreon. For just a few bucks, ditch the ads completely. And for a few bucks more,

get ad-free listening plus early access to our disaster strikes episodes because when disaster hits in the

middle of nowhere you'll want the story first head to patreon.com and search crux true survival stories

your future survival depends on it okay maybe literally, but your listening experience definitely will.

Hello, survivalists. This is the Crux True Survival Story podcast. I'm Casey McIntosh,

and I'm Julie Henningson. And we are medical professionals with a

passion for wilderness survival. Join us as we explore real life survival stories and the

critical moments that determine their outcomes. Buckle up. Adventure awaits. Let's dive into this

week's story. Leon Crane is falling through 20,000 feet of Alaskan sky, watching his B-24 Liberator spin

towards the earth in a death spiral. It's December 21st, 1943, four days before Christmas,

and the temperature outside is negative 40 degrees. He's got maybe

seconds to decide, stay with the plane or jump. And he's never parachuted before. Never. This is his

first time. The plane is screaming, alarms blaring.

The instrument panel is dead.

The pilot, Hoss Haskin, is fighting the controls, but they both know it's over.

Crane grabs a parachute off the rack, clips it to his harness with shaking hands, and throws himself out of the open Bomb Bay doors. The cold hits his exposed face like

a thousand needles. His eyes water instantly, tears freezing to his cheeks. Below him, the plane,

a massive four-engine bomber slams into the mountainside and explodes, a fireball of orange and red against the white snow.

He watches another parachute, Sergeant Richard Pompeii, drift over a ridge and disappear.

Then Crane's chute opens with a violent jerk, and he's floating down into an ocean of white.

...