I knew he'd get fired up.
Ties that burnBy Richard Horn, SUN StaffThe Guinea Pigs are bound together by the pain of horrible injuries and the inspiration of a medical pioneer.It's an exclusive club with an immense admission price.You can spot its members by their facial scars, or their missing eyes, fingers or limbs, and maybe their red ties adorned with little flying guinea pigs. Or, most likely, by their laughter, kidding and passion for life.They are the Guinea Pigs, and three of them - Bill Foxley, Sam Gallop and George Holloway, all of England - are in Kitsap County this week following a reunion of about 100 other surviving members in Victoria, British Columbia. Their host, author Pauline Furey of Port Orchard, has a cousin who is a Guinea Pig. Now she is writing a book about the inspiring group.Once they numbered 649 worldwide, members of Allied air crews who crashed and burned in World War II, then underwent experimental plastic surgery under the leadership of England's Sir Dr. Archie McIndoe. They count the ordeal one of the greatest experiences of their lives, and they still treasure the friendships."We were all young men, 19, 20, 21, and it was quite a difficult thing to come to terms with," said Foxley, a navigator in a bomber that crashed in 1944. "But by and large, because you had the others around you, it made it easy."Foxley, now 75 [when the article was written], lost an eye, his fingers and suffered severe facial burns. He has undergone some 40 surgeries. He doesn't mention it, but his friends point out that he wasn't burned in the crash itself - he returned to the flaming craft to save a comrade.Together, they shared in their English hospital and throughout their lives a kind of group therapy, but an extremely natural one, said Gallop, 76.Counseling and psychotherapy weren't known or needed back then, Gallop said, and he doesn't think much of the culture that's grown up around those words today."If anyone was sorry for himself, that was just hard luck," Gallop said."We were blessed with wonderful leadership, wonderful surgery and a very straightforward philosophy, that you either get on with it or you go under," he said. "At the end of the day it's down to you, it's your personal responsibility."That doesn't mean Gallop, who was a Spitfire pilot, isn't grateful for the many people who've helped him along the way, not the least of whom were the men, including American GIs, who pulled him out of his burning plane."I had brain damage, I broke my upper and lower jaw, knocked out all my front teeth, lost the ring finger of my left hand, both my arms were broken, my hands were burned, I've got a fracture of the spine and my feet were burned away so both my legs were amputated," he says, then looks to his chums: "Have I remembered everything?"He recalls waking up in the hospital, not knowing where he was, and looking over to see someone whose face and body were wrapped entirely in bandages. It was Foxley."I thought, Christ, I'm in a room with the Invisible Man," he said. "And this sort of vision turns to me and he says through the bandages, 'You get eggs here.' That was my introduction to the Guinea Pig Club."Foxley's right eye, the one that doesn't blink, is the one he lost. It's part of the reconstruction which was done in those 40 different surgical operations. And I must say that it appears the surgeon did an amazing job in reconstructing his face. But it does not look normal; plastic surgery is even now nowhere near that good.
So does anyone know what character he was playing in the photo?
Dr. Zachary Smith from the old Lost in space series?
Quagmire?
Correct Gian, Tom Evans, 'cept it was Christopher Plummer who played Sd Ldr Harvey, burned husband of Susannah York, Maggie Harvey.
