2nd Lieutenant Jesse Bishop, who belly lands in the B-17 next to the runway at the beginning of the film and was nominated for the Medal of Honor, had his true life counterpart in Second Lieutenant John C. Morgan. The description of Bishop's fight to control the bomber after his pilot was hit in the head by fragments of a 20 mm cannon shell is taken almost verbatim from Morgan's Medal of Honor citation. Details may be found in "The 12 O'Clock High Logbook". Robert Patten had been a USAAF Navigator in World War II, the only member of the cast with aircrew experience.