It all started on July 5th, 1944, when Air Force Colonel Floyd Haywood was forced to crash land his B-24 on the Island of Corsica. His men were left trapped inside.
"I was trying to chop a hole in the aircraft to get my navigator out and my ax was just bouncing off the outside," he said.
On the other side of the plane was another group, including Army Sgt. August Keem.
"He heard a crew member banging on the aircraft, thinking he was letting him know where the crew was in the aircraft," said Jack Keem, Sgt. Keem's son.
Together, the men pulled the others out, saving their lives. The story was then passed from father to son.
"This, for some reason was paramount in his life. He used this for life lessons growing up," said Keem.
So paramount that Keem had a painting made for his father, modeled after a crash photo. Tonight, it was donated to the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Scotia. That decision spurred months of research, leading Keem to the main character of his father's stories, a pilot that was described as skillful, brave, loyal.
"I thought it was a big hoax. He said are you Mr. Haywood, I said yes, he said are you Mr. Haywood of World War II and I said yes," said Haywood.
Today the two men met in person, for the first time.
"You've been a life lesson to me, you're the reason im a pilot," Keem told Haywood.
Tonight, the inspiration was still too humble to believe it's all true.
"It still amazes me that some guy who witnessed a tragic and violent event and was personally involved in it would remember it so long and talk about it so much that his son would finally decide to say I have to find this guy," said Haywood.
Haywood went on to have a successful career in the U.S. Air Force. Before he retired, he'd served as a Joint Chief of Staff for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. In that role he was active in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
