From drkerr.j@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Wed Apr 26 14:36:48 2017
Frank Tallman told me that he lost his leg because he tripped over his grandchilds bike or scooter in his driveway. This was during a visit he and his wife made to Australia where he and Sir Douglas Bader were invited to join the last Great Australian
Air Race organised by Malcolm Mclean.
During the flight from Perth to Sydney everyone landed in a small town where the spent the night sleeping in tents. When Frank heard Douglas trying to get up to relieve himself he sat up and said in his unique American drawl, "hey Bader, make sure you
don't pick up the wrong leg" to which Douglas said, "yes sir I don't want to fall over". Frank Tallman was over six foot tall and only had one false leg and Bader being so much shorter and losing two it was very funny and heard by all and the next thing
was hearing the entire camp breaking into laughter. The two men made the trip extremely entertaining but it was Bader with his two tin legs who had the last laugh because he went on to dance with the ladies while Tallman sat watching. It was too
difficult for him to balance and being so tall he'd need supporting.
The race was won by Australian Army Aviation pilots who we're pretty chuffed at being presented their prizes by such heroic aviators as Frank Tallman and Sir Douglas Bader. Dr Jacqueline Kerr