Could a Mustang bring back a downed comrade?

The P-51 was a single-seat fighter, so carrying a second man aboard was never part of the design anywhere. Yet it happened. On 18 August 1944, Lieutenant Royce "Deacon" Priest of the 354th Fighter Squadron, 355th Fighter Group, landed his Mustang on enemy territory to pick up Major Bert Marshall, his squadron commander, who had gone down there. Priest disobeyed direct orders twice: first by radioing his intention to land, and second by doing so despite Marshall's explicit prohibition.

Marshall himself initially refused to climb aboard. Priest settled the argument by taking off his parachute and life raft, a gesture that made clear he had no intention of leaving without him, and with that he got his squadron leader into the aircraft. There was barely enough room in the cockpit to close the canopy with the two men wedged inside, but the pair managed to take off just in time to dodge a second approaching German patrol.

Recognition came, but measured. General James Doolittle awarded Priest the Distinguished Service Cross instead of the Medal of Honor, precisely so as not to encourage other pilots to attempt equally risky rescues. The decision sums up the episode's ambivalence well: an admired feat and, at the same time, a maneuver that command did not want to see turned into a habit among its single-seat fighters.