William H RankinMarine Lieutenant Colonel WILLIAM H. RANKIN made national headlines in 1959 when, forced to bail out of his jet fighter plane at almost 50,000 feet with no special pressure suit, he survived a seven-mile free fall, only to plunge into a violent stormthat kept him in its turbulent grip for half an hour. He wrote a book about the astounding adventure, The Man Who Rode the Thunder, describing how his Marine Corps training had so well fitted him for the ordeal. A Marine sergeant in World War II, Colonel Rankin subsequently took flight training and flew with the "Fearless Four"-the first supersonic squadron-in Korea before assuming command of the famed Marine Fighter Squadron 122. While writing Be Fit as a Marine, he was commanding officer of training battalion at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. Read More Read Less