The Flight Of Peto's Key

Some missions take a lifetime to finish.

In 1944, Captain Jack Whitaker and his crew flew a battered C-47 across the deadly Himalayan air route known as "the Hump." The aircraft was supposed to bear the name of Jack's Northern Michigan hometown-Petoskey-but a painter's mistake transformed it into PETO'S KEY.

The misspelled name became the crew's lucky charm.

When a violent storm brought the aircraft down in the Burmese jungle, the men escaped with their lives. Peto's Key-and the photograph of ...