Apocryphal John Wayne Story (that should be true, darn it!)

A comment from Quint’s A Movie A Day review of Flying Tigers:

Many years ago I had a friend who was a combat pilot in Vietnam. He would tell the story about his old fight commander (let’s call him Frank), who had been one of the pilot the military loaned to Republic for the production of “Flying Tigers”. During one of the flying sequences Frank’s plane developed engine trouble causing an emergency landing. After a very rough touchdown, Frank jumped out of the smoking plane, stumbled away as fast as possible and collapsed on the side of the landing field. Onlookers came running up to check on his condition. As Frank looked up a tall figure leaned down and said, “Are you all right, son?” Say the line with a John Wayne voice and you have the picture.

Twenty–five years or so later in Vietnam, Frank is returning to base, his plane develops engine trouble causing an emergency landing. After a very rough touchdown, Frank jumped out of the smoking plane, stumbled away as fast as possible and collapsed on the side of the landing field. Onlookers came running up to check on his condition. As Frank looked up a tall figure leaned down and said, “Are you all right, son?” Wayne was visiting the base as part of a USO tour or maybe prepping for Green Berets, I don’t recall. True story? I have no idea. But it makes for a good story.

(Edited lightly for punctuation, spelling, and clarity.)