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JP · 06-06-2022, 07:28 PM

Photos like that always take my breath away. The heroics of everday men facing exceptional circumstances always amazes me. A quick personal anecdote if you don't mind....

I grew up very close to my grandparents. Especially my grandmother who was the indisputable boss of the family but also my grandfather who was as decent a man as ever existed. Polite to a fault. Selfless. And with that very specific, quiet dignity that so many of his generation shared.

He passed in 2008 but about 10 years before he passed, my Mom got a call from a DC area code from someone who identified himself as a representative of the U.S. Air Force and was trying to contact my grandfather. My Mom, ever suspicious, grilled the poor man for several minutes as she was certain this was some sort of scam. I mean, we all knew that Grandpa had served in WW2 but as far as we knew it was uneventful and he had never spoken about it. Why would the Air Force suddenly be trying to reach him? The answer surprised us all, "Well, ma'am, your father is a war hero".

Once my Mom managed to pick her jaw up off the floor, she got the details. Turns out, during World War II my grandgather was a First Lieutenant in the Eighth Air Force and a pilot on the B-17 Flying Fortress "ChestY," where he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. He also received two Presidential Citations and holds the Air Medal with eight Oak Leaf clusters. As a member of the 34th Bomb Group, he was a veteran of over twenty heavy bombardment missions over enemy territory and one of his Presidential citations was conferred upon his division for their historic England-Africa shuttle bombing of Messerschmitt plants in Regensburg, Germany. The Air Force was calling because my grandfather's plane was embarking on a nationwide tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of her decommissioning and they wanted her pilots to accompany her on the tour.

Fast forward 24 hours and we're sitting in my grandparents living room while my Mom tells my grandparents about the call. My grandfather responded that it all sounded nice and like something that he would enjoy. "So it's true?", said my Mom. "You were on those missions? You won all those medals?" "Yes, I suppose so" came the reply. "But why would you never tell us?" my Mom asked. My grandfather looked at all of us with honest bewilderment in his eyes. "Why would I talk about any of that?" he answered.

Yes, the greatest generation

soterik · 06-06-2022, 11:31 PM

Wonderful story... glad you got to here it personally, staggering when you think of how young they were and how it must have impacted their lives. I never heard any of the "war" stories, but did hear some good stories. They truly felt it was their duty and responsibility and that was the way life was. I know it affected my uncle a lot, he felt like he was helping send those paratroopers to their deaths as they jumped from the plane he was navigating. The youngest of those left would probably be 96.

Frank Beck · 06-07-2022, 05:53 AM

Gives me chills. Thanks for posting JP.
Anyone who survived 20 missions on a B-17 is a hero. Greatest generation indeed!

Part of the reason many citizens nowadays are so fearful of pretty much everything is because they see little need to be brave and they don't know history or understand its implications.

dwa911 · 06-07-2022, 06:24 AM

I am always in awe at those who serve...

I knew my grandfather served in the army in WW2, but he never spoke about it once... When I would ask my mom, she would say he never talked about his time in the war ever... I asked when I was a kid, as most kids, I was enamoured with the military of that era... But he would just change the subject... Usually to something in his garage - he liked to work with his hands...

What I learned after he passed away, was that he enlisted in 1941, and served as a private in the army, landed in North Africa, Sicily, Anzio, and after being wounded in Italy, and recovering back in England, landed in Normandy to fight all the way to Germany until the end... Never a word to anyone... When he passed away, he left me his watch, his zippo, and his medals - a bronze star, purple heart and a few good conduct, and theatre medals...

I've been fortunate and honoured to travel to Normandy several times... once for the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and then I would randomly go when I was transferred to France for work... It is such a peaceful serene setting today, one can hardly imagine anything like D-Day happening there, until you see the remains of the artillery bunkers and craters at Pointe du Hoc... and the most sobering are the various cemeteries for the fallen... It is the same all over Europe... the forests where the battle of the bulge was fought near Spa Francorchamps, etc... Seems impossible to believe it could have happened... And yet, it is still, just a bit farther east... One would think we would learn lessons...

Greatest generation indeed... Thanks for sharing...
D

Steve Shea · 06-07-2022, 08:23 AM

My Dad was also in the Eighth Air Force, 308 Bomb Wing stationed in a camouflaged crater in Cerignola Italy. He was on the Ploesti raid but said little about his wartime. My uncles were in the Pacific Theater and freer with war stories. Dad left the service in '45 a major. In '50 the Army offered him a commission as a Brigadier General to come back, Korea. He declined, had had enough.