They went to war, saved the world from tyranny and just wanted to get on with their lives. God rest their souls
My dad talked about the ones who he really held in awe, the Brits who'd been in the war for four years before he arrived in '43, the General he worked for who was the first USAAF general to be lost in combat, the guys who could have gone home after 25 missions, but stayed on toi do 50, then 75, then a hundred. He just wanted to get back home and resume his engineering studies.
It wasn't until I got to talk to some of the guys who'd elected him the Post Commander of our local American Legion Post and a couple of those who served with him who showed up for his funeral, that I found out his little secret. He was one of those who finished his 25 missions and stayed on to work with the Brits in unarmed photorecon planes, then after 50 more missions with them , stuck around as a Special Services entertainer- he was an accomplished Dixieland trombonist, and having done his part in fighting the war, stuck around to make conditions a little more bearable for those with whom he had worked.
-archy-/-
