In a letter from Milton H. Halberstadt to Howard N. Hartman dated January 17, 1990, Halberstadt writes " . . . the plane we were assigned for this mission in place of our Boojum was hit by the fuse of an 88mm shell over Mostar, Yugoslavia some 46 years ago. After bouncing off of my flak-suit it knocked the electrical system out and went on to lodge in the oil line of the #2 engine which had to be feathered - whew, no wonder my stomach was so sore for a week!"

Halberstadt continues, "I must confess that I had a premonition and for the first time in our 10 missions I plotted back-headings for this one."

Then Halberstadt sheds some light on why the crew was flying in another airplane, "We were on the Great! Texan's plane, Texas Ranger. I blocked his name a long time ago. He's the one who wore 6-shooters on his hips. He was a month late reporting to Italy (I have never been able to watch Catch 22 - the little I've seen of it reminds me of him). He's the one that had never made a mission in 9 starts, and ol' reliable Jeff (Laszewski) was chosen to prove that the plane was OK and that Tex was not."

"I was just writing in my log: '10:05 Mostar, 10,000 feet, climbing' and I can still see the hole in the fuselage just above Bonham and to the right of Keifer, the substitute nose-turret gunner. (Amazing how the brain can at times actually slow-motion the action! )"

About his stay in the hospital, Halberstadt writes, "I remember . . . someone holding up my flak-suit as an example of why one should wear a flak-suit. And I remember Col. Steed giving me the Purple Heart the next day and his saying, 'I'm sorry, I knew we shouldn't have been there.' "