Posted on 11/11/2004 4:57:02 AM PST by SandRat
Louis Hernandez and Vincent Radkiewicz met by chance two years ago, at an East Side pancake house.
Hernandez had a postcard from Poland but couldn't read it. Radkiewicz, another customer, could - and did.
The two struck up a conversation. Hernandez told Radkiewicz, a Polish native, that he was shot down over Poland during World War II.
Radkiewicz, 66, who remembers the horrors of the war, realized he could do something to thank Hernandez, 83, for his sacrifice.
So he did.
Hernandez was a World War II pilot with the 452nd Bomber Group based in England. On June 21, 1944, he had bombed a German target and was headed toward Russia, where his aircraft would refuel and rearm. But over Poland, near the Russian border at about noon, a German Messerschmitt 109 fighter appeared in front of his plane.
"All of a sudden there he was," Hernandez said.
The German pilot sprayed the Flying Fortress. The stricken B-17 lurched downward in a tight spin.
"I tried to hold the plane as best I could," said Hernandez, his hands gripping imaginary controls.
He signaled his crew of nine to bail out. He was the last to jump.
They parachuted safely. But they were in immediate danger.
The Germans captured three crew members, who remained prisoners until the end of the war. Hernandez and the other six escaped.
The men, led by their 23-year-old first lieutenant, eventually returned home. They never reunited to talk about their harrowing experience.
But the people of Poland did not forget. They erected a monument honoring the American dead and specifically the 10 airmen who fell from the sky.
Hernandez had a permanent place of honor in Poland.
Hernandez grew up in El Paso and finished high school before the United States entered the war in December 1941. He joined the Army Air Forces, a rare accomplishment for a Mexican-American.
He trained at makeshift airfields at Ryan and Marana, outside Tucson, and Yuma. He then shipped off to war.
Literally. He went to England on a troopship. It was a nauseating trip: "It was two meals down and two meals up every day," he said.
He could have used the food while avoiding capture.
After he hit the Polish countryside, Hernandez and Herschel Wise, a gunner, hid in a wheat field. They could hear German soldiers nearby.
They waited for several hours, then made their way to a farmhouse, where the family hid them inside a haystack in the barn.
The Germans arrived and poked inside the haystack but did not find the flyboys.
By midnight, the seven free fliers reunited with the help of Polish freedom fighters. The Americans were spirited across the countryside for six weeks. Several times they were nearly detected.
"I never slept. Oh, I did sleep once - on a bed full of lice."
Most of the time they had little to eat. But grateful Poles fed them what little they had.
"We did drink a lot of vodka," he said. "The people were nice as they could be."
The Poles were protective, too. When invading Russian soldiers pushed out the Germans, they agreed to return the Americans to their base. Before they left, the Poles made the Russians sign a paper stating the Americans would be handed over in good health.
The men eventually were flown to England. Hernandez never flew another mission. He returned to El Paso to train B-29 pilots.
After the war, he earned a college teaching degree and spent more than 40 years as an educator, 31 as an El Paso junior high school principal. He called it the "best job in the world."
He came to Tucson three years ago to be with his two sons and four grandchildren. He spends one day a week as a volunteer docent at the 390th Memorial Museum on the grounds of the Pima Air and Space Museum.
He is reticent about his war experience. He said he doesn't want to relive the war.
But the day he met Radkiewicz, Hernandez told him a little of his story.
Radkiewicz recalled a Polish war memorial honoring the Americans. Not long after their meeting, Radkiewicz was in Poland and went to a village near where the Americans parachuted to see the memorial, a B-17 tail embedded in concrete
Hernandez's name was inscribed, along with his crewmates' names. Radkiewicz connected the dots and had a friend take photographs.
Hernandez knew the memorial existed. But he had not seen it.
He saw pictures of it Tuesday - for the first time.
"I'll be darned," he said, holding the photographs before him. He remained quiet, alone in his thoughts.
It was his moment with his monument.
Veteran's Day Salute
Gratitude to our veterans.
One never knows the full story of an individual. I'm now a "senior citizen" - but when I see these older fellows I wonder what stories they could tell. You never know which ones fought in WWII, Korea, etc. A really frail one might have been a strong young fighting machine and maybe a hero. We, for the most part, will never know - but we do have their legacy, which we must not take for granted.
You raise a good point. Whenever I go to one of my kids' high school functions, I look at the skinny, pimply, clueless teenage guys and realize "the Greatest Generation looked just like this."
Your Two Replys are superb photo essays. Thank you.
Veterans Day ~ Bump!
Bump!
What a nice story about one of our veterans. God bless them all.
Good job. Thanks.
bump...
and for any lurkers/posters who haven't ever been to an airshow to hear
a B-17 aloft...you must go...
Talk about a smooth exhaust note...
Can you tell me where this memorial is located? Thanks in advance.
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