Scorned by his wife and unable to get a better job than working at the drug store. Was important in the war but now feels like a surplus human being standing in a field with all the other surplus equipment.
Powerful.
Homer was the veteran crippled when he lost both hands in the war. He so doubted his worth on returning home that he was not willing to marry his sweetheart because he felt he would burden her. In the airplane graveyard scene, Fred found himself sitting in the airplane’s nose, his “office” as a bombardier, but as the camera pulls back we see that the plane’s engines are missing, just like Homer’s severed hands. It tells us that Fred, like Homer, no longer feels that he has the same self-worth he did during the war. One’s wounds are visible, the other’s not, but no less crippling. Both must heal to recover the best years of their lives.