If relaying another's story is against the rules, I apologize. My father had to get out of an N2S in December 1943, just west of then Bunker Hill NAS, (now Grissom AFB). While teaching inverted spins to a stud, he saw the wires snap and the top wing (now on the bottom) start to buckle near the tank. He screamed "get out". Since they were negative at the time all it took was to let go of the buckle and they both went out. A few swings on the silk and he lands in an empty field and walks up to the farmer's house and borrows the phone. A short time later an ambulance pulls up with a Marine Major and an enlisted driver, while leaving the field the ambulance gets stuck, the Major drives while the enlisted driver and my father, an O3, pushes the ambulance out of the mud. A shot of brandy and he was on the schedule the next morning to fly. Later when the wreckage was recovered from its smoking hole, my dad cut out the section of fabric saying "NAVY" on the fuselage and kept it. The board found several other IP's had complained that Stearman had a heavy wing. The stud survived and continued in training. I still have my father's Caterpillar Club membership card, and the fabric section from the fuselage that says "NAVY".
I know one pilot who just retired who is at CNATRA with 1 ejection. Quite a few it seems.
