The McConnell Story

The McConnell Story is a 1955 dramatization of the life and career of U.S. Air Force pilot Joseph C. McConnell 19221954, who served as a navigator in World War II before becoming the top American ace during the Korean War. He was killed while serving as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert of California. The Warner Brothers production, filmed in CinemaScope and Warner Color, starred Alan Ladd as McConnell and June Allyson as his wife. Longtime Warners staff composer Max Steiner wrote the musical score for the film.

A number of months after the film was announced, McConnell died in a crash. This required the script to be rewritten.For a sequence depicting the rescue of a downed B29 Superfortress crew that McConnell was trying to protect, a Sikorsky H19 of the 48th Air Rescue Squadron, Eglin AFB, Florida, was deployed to Alexandria AFB, Louisiana, for seven days in February 1955. Captain E. R. Thone and Airman First Class Ronald K. Opitz, of the 48th ARS, were the crew for the helicopter, TDY to shoot the rescue sequence. ........

Source: Wikipedia