- April 12, 1945.

A young staff sergeant, Red Erwin,

was part of a fleet of B-29 bombers

over the Pacific Ocean racingtoward the Japanese coast.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

The phosphorus bomb detonatedbefore leaving the plane,

and as Erwin desperatelytried to contain it,

he was set on fire.

Award-winning film director, Jon Erwin,

shares his own grandfather'slife-altering story

and legacy in his book, "Beyond Valor."

It's a great book.

Joining me now is Red Erwin's grandson,

film director Jon Erwin.

Jon, welcome.

- Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

- Jon, last night, myeight-year-old daughter

saw me reading your book andshe said, "What's it about?"

and I told her the basic premise

and what was going on in the airplane

and I said, "This guy was a real hero."

And she said, "No, Daddy,he was a superhero,"

and he really seemed to be.

Jon, tell us what went onin that aircraft that day.

- Well, thank you so much,

and again, thanks for having me on.

Yeah, my granddad, April 12, 1945,

and he was flying into B-29 Superfortress,

amazing aircraft.

He was a radio operator.

And he had to drop a phosphorous flare

to signal the other planes into formation.

They were the lead plane.

And phosphorus is terrible.

It burns at 2,000 degrees

and you can't put it out easily at all.

And they hit an air pocket

and the bomb flew back up into the plane

and erupted in his face andfilled the plane with smoke,

burned him severely, andthe plane went into a dive.

And it was really just a question

of whether they weregonna crash in the ocean

and the whole crew was gonna die

or the plane was gonna eruptand the six tons of bombs

were gonna take out a lotof planes around them.

And he, he was very devout

and he prayed a simpleprayer, "God help me."

He said he felt a presence on the plane

and he went for the bomb insteadof trying to save himself.

He cradled it like a football

and started for the front of the plane,

and it really was an actof superhuman strength,

and got to the front of theplane, tossed it out the window,

and they pulled up at just 300 feet,

just seconds from disaster.

And providentially, therewas a colonel onboard

to observe the raid, 'causethey were the lead plane,

named Strauss and he wasso moved by what he saw

that he made a, sort ofan unprecedented decision.

He said, "Turn the plane around

and let's try to save this man's life."

And that led to a series of irregular

and unprecedented circumstancesin a race against time

to get him the Medal of Honor,

which is our nation's highest award,

and it happened in just a week

and that has neverhappened before or since.

So it's just an incredible story.

And I remember visitingwith Gary Littrell,

who was the president ofthe Medal of Honor Society

at the time, and he said, "You know,

your generation is just not aware

of what the Medal of Honoris, what it represents,

how important it is andhow the freedoms we enjoy

were bought and paid with aprice and we're in their debt."

And so I hope that, by writing the book

and people reading it, peoplewill once again be remembered.

It's a good time to rememberjust how much we owe

those that fought for thefreedoms that we enjoy.

- And Jon, you know,in a time when we seem

to really need heroes andbe able to look up to people

who put others before themselves,it's incredible to think

of your grandfather beingburned by this bomb.

Then, in a matter of, yousaid it was in the book,

about a 22-second period oftime, he makes the decision

to pick it up again, embrace it,

put himself in even greater peril

to save the lives of others.

What, having this type of grandfather,

what has it done for you as a man,

as you seek to live your life?

How has it changed you themore you know his story?

- That's a great question and, by the way,

that's what I hope will come of this book.

Take the time to learnyour legacy, you know.

And there's so few of theGreatest Generation still with us.

Take the time to listen.

For my own part, I remember vividly

when I was six, seven years old,

my grandfather, let mehold his Medal of Honor.

I had no idea what I was holding.

It just looked like a goldmedal with a blue ribbon.

And he said over my shoulder,"Freedom isn't free."

You know, and it tookme a while to understand

the meaning of those words.

I hate to say, when I was ateenager, I probably didn't,

I didn't listen as I should have.

You know, a lot of timeswhen you're that age,

you're just not aware of history,

you're not grateful for history.

And he talked a lot about his war stories.

I loved him, but I didn't really listen,

and it wasn't until his funeral,when I was 19 years old,

I was so moved by what I saw.

There was such honorkind of bestowed on him.

I remember a bomber found its way

beneath the clouds and tipped its wings

and there was such military honor there.

It's like a light bulb went off in my mind

of who was my granddad, andan instant wave of guilt

that I didn't listen to hisstories the way I should have,

and that led to a questthat has taken a long time,

to go around the countryand preserve the story

and interview his crew members,one of which is still alive,

and other B-29ers and his brothers,

and just go on this journey of discovery.

And that changed me, you know.

I've not served our nationin the armed forces,

but, you know, we canall go above and beyond

the call of duty.

And we can all do morethan is required of us.

And we can all make sacrifices

for those that we love beside us.

It's an interesting thingthat everybody you talk to

that has received the Medal of Honor,

at least everybody I did, they did it

because they love the peoplebeside them, you know.

It was an act of love.

And we can all, we can all do that.

- Jon, we just have a moment or so left.

Real quick, you know who else was heroic

in my view is your grandmother because

when your grandfather- Yeah.

- comes out of that situation,he's severely injured

and she loved him throughall that, didn't she?

- One of my favorite parts of the story,

it's such an incredible lovestory, is my grandmother.

They had only been marriedabout three months when he left.

And he was a really good looking guy,

looked like a young Matt Damon.

And she had no idea theextent of his injuries

and he was terrified of the first time

that she would see him.

Many people in the burn ward,their wives would leave them

because they just couldn't take it.

He had gotten down to about 85 pounds,

he was clutching to life, and she came in.

He clutched the bomb in his right hand

and so the right side ofhis face was severely burned

and she found the onlyunburned portion of his cheek

on the left side of his face.

She kissed him.

She said, "Welcome home. I love you."

And that really gave him thecourage and will to live.

And one of the last things that,

I said, "Okay, we can write the book now,"

is when she passed on, sheleft us all of the love letters

that he had written her during the war.

She'd kept them.

Many of those are in the book.

And so it's just a special,special, special love story.

And I remember seeingthem just before he died,

and he had had a stroke.

And they just caught each other's eye,

and I've never seen twopeople so in love, you know,

even at that age and it'sa spectacular love story.

And yes, she's as muchof a hero as he was.

- Well, it's a great book.

Heroics, romance, a little of everything,

very inspirational.

Thanks for joining us.

And if you'd like to-- Sure, thanks so much.

- We were thrilled to have you.

If you want to learn more,check out "Beyond Valor."

It is available online andwherever books are sold.

And again, we thank Jon for being here.

It's an incredible story, Terry.

- Oh, it really is.

I thoroughly enjoyed the read

and I think all of you would too.

Highly recommend the book,

and hopefully, there might be a movie

coming out of this- I hope so.

- with the background thatthis man has so watch for that.