‘I’m so grateful for getting shot out of the sky’

The Japanese fighter caught the American pilot from behind, riddling his plane with machine-gun rounds. The left engine burst into flames. It was time to bail out.

Hargesheimer's two schools had an enrollment of some 500, and a list of well-educated alumni numbering many hundreds more, including Garua Peni ... She had an advanced degree in linguistics in Australia and now was taking over Hargesheimer's New Guinea foundation as chairperson.

"The more I thought about my experience with the people in New Guinea, the more I realized what a debt I had to try to repay." - Fred Hargesheimer, grateful, rescued, now-philanthropist