Culberson, Bryant P.

On take-off for a training mission at Cannon AFB, I heard a loud bump and was told by the tower that I was on fire. The SOF advised me to eject. I checked my instruments and everything appeared normal with no warning lights but I looked in the mirror and saw the flames.

I decided to get enough altitude for a safe ejection but was not going to jump out unless I found something definitely showing a fire. When I came out of burner, the fire went out. I had a wingman check me over and he said I was pouring fuel from the left wing tank and that the left gun bay door was missing.

When I landed I found out that the gun bay door had not been secured and came off on rotation and that the fuel tank had a big hole in the inboard side.

Another day at the office.