One of the things my dad mentioned in a brief “sermon” when we were visiting at the Homestead on Christmas, was that our friend Earl who died a few weeks ago was the substitute/alternate pilot for Paul Tibbets on the Enola Gay.
Earl mostly flew the Navigator seat because he was so good at numbers, a skill that advanced him greatly at Lockheed after the war when he patented a number of aeronautical processes etc., and also because everybody in the aircraft wanted to get home on the dot and dime instead of landing in the ocean – but he had the pilot’s wings for a B29 and was well qualified to fly it – and he was the next name on the list.
After the cessation of hostilities and before demobilizing he flew missions that dropped pallets of materials and food to guys on the beach who had been released from Japanese POW camps. They were in pretty rough shape.
Godspeed you greatest-generation, and thanks for the Liberty – I wish we had kept hold of it better.
Someone once asked rhetorically why it took so long before the WWII memorial was finally built. I replied that it never occurred to that generation to build a memorial to themselves.
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My dad was complaining that “somebody” was getting a new hero’s monument or something, and saw no need for it – but he kinda bats for the other side…
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It’s a strange thing, how most Americans have forgotten what WWII was about and how high the stakes were.
Almost everybody from that Great Generation was involved somehow. For instance, it turns out that an acquaintance of ours from the magazine days is currently taking care of his Alzheimer-afflicted mom, who when she was younger, was a mathematician so brilliant that she was recruited for the Manhattan project. It is painful for him to watch her mind go; just as in a lesser way, I suppose, it is painful for our whole culture to slowly lose that great reservoir of warriors, patriots and can-do builders.
God bless them all.
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I’m not sure we will see such as them again in my life time. Yet the Corpsman grandson gives me a ray of hope.
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My BIL’s boys have all been “there” and it does offer much hope.
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Hello
You have a nice blog here! My name is Samuel Gonzalez and I run The Last Tradition. I’ve been doing it since 2009 and I’m pretty dedicated to what I do. I’m always looking for other good blogs to service my readers and yours fits the bill. Check out my blog and if you like what you see I hope you add me to your blog roll. I’ll do the same for you. Hope to hear from you soon!
http://www.thelasttradition.com/
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Hi Samuel! I’ can do that. 🙂
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Amen to that!
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