Many thanks for the fascinating, and delightful story. Even more so as it's from a fellow member of the FReeper class of '98. FYI...I found several American Can banks listed
here Is yours one of these? I knew that post-war studies by the Air Force revealed how inaccurate the bomb results were. What surprised me, as I mentioned, were the recent revelations that commanders knew early on in the war that they weren't hitting anything most of the time....that the bombing campaign was designed bring the Luftwaffe into combat, where they could be destroyed...by a war of attrition...
FYI..my dad was a C-47 pilot...he dropped Pathfinders on June 5th
I found several American Can banks listed here Is yours one of these? Mine has a picture of Thomas Jeffferson handing the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock. Other dignitaries in the background.
I noted you linked to an eBay page. No way I'm going to sell mine. Let my kids sell it after I'm dead. They won't appreciate the story behind it anyway.
My father was in the Navy. He'd have been manning a landing craft for the invasion of Japan, except for the atomic bomb. That may have saved his life.