Here's Jimmy!
returning from that mission.
If he were alive today, Baghdad
would receive another B-52 visit.
Indeed he was. The following interesting tidbit comes from www.jimmy.org:
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The Last Mission
After he was discharged from the Army Air Forces on September 29, 1945, Stewart was immediately appointed to colonel in the U.S. Army Air Forces Reserve. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1959 and retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1968. But, before retiring, the decorated officer had one last mission:
After Stewart's death in 1997, Air Power History published a memoriam that included this little-known item: "In 1966, during his annual two weeks of active duty, Stewart requested a combat assignment and participated in a bombing strike over Vietnam. Stewart's stepson, 1st Lt. Ronald McLean, was killed at age 24 in the Vietnam War.
In his World War II years, Stewart flew 20 combat missions, among them the tough ones: Brunswick, Bremen, Frankfurt, Schweinfurt and Berlin. His wartime decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, four Air Medals, and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm.
With myriad honors of a celebrated and eclectic career, including the highest in his profession, the Academy Award, it is not hard to believe that Jimmy Stewart reached the best time of his life in those eventful and dangerous years of World War II.
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How about that... a B-52 mission, most likely.
Here's Jimmy! returning from that mission.
If he were alive today, Baghdad would receive another B-52 visit.