From Opelika Daily News, Opelika, Alabama, about September/October, 1944. This story was also in the Stars and Stripes, but may not have been by the same reporter and text may not have been identical. Ike (Isham Jenkins Dorsey, III) told us he was shot down near Metz, France.
Opelika Boy Lt. Ike Dorsey Rescued By General After His Plane Crashes
By CPL. WILLIAM R. BROWNE Pro. Staff Reporter With 7th Armored Division
With the Seventh Armored Division in France, Sept. 11. (1944) --- To be rescued by a Major General is a feat that just doesn't happen everyday and maybe that is why this isn't just another rescue story. To 1st Lt. Ike Dorsey, son of Mr. and Mrs. I. J. Dorsey, Jr., of Opelika, Alabama, it is a rescue he will never forget.
Lt. Dorsey was pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter plane over France last evening when he was caught in a barrage of anti-aircraft flak thrown up by German 20mms. His plane crashed crashed on a hillside near Amanvillers, France.
Immediately after climbing from his plane he ran for a clump of bushes on the edge of the field. Soon he heard the sound of a motor vehicle. Cautiously he peered out from behind his camouflaged position and observed an armored car with the white star across its front and the familiar red sign with white stars to denote a general officer. With a cry of surprise and joy he leaped into the air and ran to the side of the vehicle and clambered aboard to be greeted personally by *Major General Lindsay McDonald Silvester, who's 7th armored division headquarters unit was bivouacked nearby.
Lt. Dorsey was on his 33rd mission. He was a member of the crew of a squadron of the Ninth Air Force. His flight had been participating in supporting American and Allied ground troops in an attack on a hill position.
This reporter was the first newsman on the scene and Lt. Dorsey seemed none the worse for his harrowing experience. He said that it was the first time he had been forced to crash-land his plane.
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