The good, the bad, the ugly, the army

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood

Published Mar 24, 2015

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Clint Eastwood felt a “stark terror” when a military bomber he hitched a ride in crashed into shark-infested waters.

The director has opened up about almost losing his life during his time in the army, admitting he was terrified when the aircraft ran out of fuel and dumped him and the other men on board into the freezing cold ocean.

He said: “What was going through my mind was just a stark fear, a stark terror, because… I didn’t know anything about aviation at that particular time – I was just hopping a ride.”

Explaining how he came to be on the aircraft, the 84-year-old said: “In those days, you could wear your uniform and get a free flight. On the way back, they had one plane, a Douglas AD, sort of a torpedo bomber of the World War II vintage, and I thought I’d hitch on that. Everything went wrong. Radios went out. Oxygen ran out. And finally we ran out of fuel up around Point Reyes, California, and went in the ocean.”

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