Unlikely shooting

Don Moore's War Tales has an article about an amazing feat of World War Two:

A few days ago, the Sun ran an Associated Press story about Frances Langford’s death at 92 in Florida\, where she had lived for decades. Back in he 1940s, she was a well-known Hollywood movie star. She toured the word as part of Bob Hopes’ troupe performing for servicemen during World War Two.
The reason for mentioning her is that she was a classmate at Lakeland High School of Ralph Calef, who now lives in Englewood, Florida. He has the distinction of being the only American soldier during the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, who may have shot down a Japanese fighter plane with a bow and arrow.
One of my early columns, written for the 10 September 2001 Sun, told  Ralph’s tale. That’s been almost four years ago, so I thought this might be the right time to tell it again.
It seems that Ralph got talked into coming out to Hollywood by Frances before the war. At that point in his life, he had a pretty well-known dance band, even though he was only in his early twenties. He went to California, got in with the movie set, continued with his band and made a lot of money until just before World War Two, when he enlisted in the Army.
By the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Ralph was a sergeant with a coastal artillery unit in Hawai'i. He was stationed at Camp Malacola, near Hickam Field, but he lived off base in a small apartment within walking distance of the chow hall.
On Sunday morning, just before 0800, he was walking to breakfast when the Japanese attacked. He had his uniform on and his trusty .45-caliber pistol strapped to his hip when he saw a line of enemy Zero fighters dive on his company’s barracks. They pulled out of their dives at tree-top level, less than a hundred feet off the ground.
“Of course I had no bullets in my .45,” Ralph said. “The Army didn’t trust us with ammunition then. They had it all locked up.”
He watched mesmerized for a few moments before deciding to take thing into his own hands. He ran home and got a hunting bow and six steel-tipped arrows he had in his apartment. “I was damn good in those days, with that bow and arrow,” he said. “I waited for the Japanese planes too attack us again. I watched the first plane fly by just over my head. As the second Zero came down, I could see the pilot in the cockpit, when I let my arrow fly. I watched it pierce the Plexiglas canopy. Moments later a plane crashed a couple of streets behind where I was standing.” He was just about run to the crash site and see if there was a Japanese pilot with an arrow stuck in him when his battalion major rolled up in his Jeep. “‘Sergeant,’ he yelled, “‘get the keys for the ammunition locker and open it up. World War Two just started.’”
It would be two days later before Ralph had time to check out the downed Zero two streets away. By then the pilot’s body had been removed.
“But there was a hole in the Plexiglas where your arrow penetrated?” I inquired.
“’No,’” Ralph said. “‘There wasn’t any Plexiglas left. It was all broken out when the plane crashed.”
“So how do you know this was the enemy plane you shot down with your bow an arrow?” I inquired.
“‘I don’t, I never could find that out,”’ he said.
Even so, Sergeant Ralph Calef of Englewood was invited by the National Park Service, which maintains the Arizona National Memorial at Pearl Harbor, to be their guest on 7 December 2001, the sixtieth anniversary of the attack that launched the United States into the Second World War. He was asked to come to the ceremony planned by the park service and tell his tale.
He never made it because of the attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. The ceremony was scaled down because of the New York City terrorist attack. 

This story was first published in the Charlotte Sun newspaper of Port Charlotte, Florida, on 25 July 2005 and is republished with permission.

After Pearl Harbor, Calef went to officers’ training and served in the Seventh Army in Europe. He was in the thick of the fighting in the North African Campaign, the Sicilian Campaign, the Southern Italian Campaign, the Northern Italian Campaign, the Southern France Campaign, and the German Campaign. He received five campaign stars, two Purple Hearts, the Asiatic Pacific Ribbon, the Soldier’s Medal, and the American Defense Ribbon.

Rico says that, if anyone could bring down a Zero with an arrow, it was Calef...
Rico says WHAT