Yeah, I think he got shot down in an Avenger twice and sliced open his head on the tail section... Ouchies...
I thought he only got shot down once, off the coast of Chichi Jima, and got picked up by a sub. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be here today, if I remember correctly 6-10 american navy, 1 marine corps, and 1 USAAC b-24 guy got shot down on the same island and were captured, all of them were executed and some of then were cannonbalized

............read the book
Flyboys, good book
P.S. just for the record, its not a blame-it-all-on-the-usa-book, it gives a fair account on what happened