. >> half a world away, bud mahurin became an ace over germany on october 4th, 1943. >> they were 110s. i came into the closest one i could and fired at it and hit it. it eventually went down. pulled off of that one and turned over and saw another one. went after that, shot it down. finally found a third, shot it down. and then found one that was headed back into germany and i followed that for a while and shot at it and damaged it. the main thing that i really learned from that one was that as i went by the first airplane, the gunner in the back end of it had obviously been wounded and probably killed, but he was stuck in the back cockpit and his body was flailing in the breeze as the airplane went down. and so now i'm aware of the fact that we're after human beings and not just a machine that's flying in the air. >> when "war stories" continues, two of our warriors face a pilot's worst nightmare, goininn >>> on november 26th, 1943, less than two months after becoming an ace, walker "bud" mahurin down's three f-10s in a raid. now with ten kills he was the first double ace, an impressi

i was gone. >> the enemy finally got their hands on colonel walker "bud" mahurin.e spent 16 months as a prisoner of war, all of it in sill taer. >> it was what we refer to as brainwashing technique. no sleep, practically no food, constant interrogation. they wanted me to confess to having waged warfare against them. so i decided this is it, i can't take it anymore. and then i started to slash my wrists. i got it so blood was spurting out pretty far and i sat down in my chair and put my arms in my uniform and said good-bye to my family. >> but a guard discovered him before he bled to death. >> they started to feed me intravenously for what i guess was about 11 days. and then as soon as that was over, they started the interrogations again. >> he was finally released three months after the cease-fire was signed in july of '53. he retired three years later and went on to enjoy a successful career in the aerospace industry and he still makes regular trips to luke air force base, home to his world war ii squadron. >> those moments that you're here and that you're flying