What if it Snows?

I get that alot. I hung around a much older crowd when I was growing up. In high school I used to get up early to go into the local diner at 0500 to sit and drink coffee with the old men before I went to school. I enjoyed listening to thier stories of times gone by.

 

One of the old men I used to sit with once told me...

"Its not the years, its the miles. I was in Europe from D-day right through to the end... I was old before I turned 20."

 

Man thats a heck of a statement.

 

I didnt see it at the time... But remembering how he said it and how he looked at that moment, it was like he was reliving the war or something. He didnt talk much about the war. About all I know is he made alot of friends, and watched several of them die.

 

My grandfather was in WW2. Came home and became a surgeon. I was younger when he died. Never got to ask any questions about either. Wish I could have.

 

I have 5 great uncles that fought in the war, I met them all. Only 1 or 2 talked about the war, but I was to young to realize I should have been paying attention.

I recently found a digitized copy of the original MACR (Missing Air Crew Report) for my uncles B-17.

He was a waist gunner, they were shot down over Talouse France before D-day. He spent the rest of the war as a POW.

When they bailed out they were at about 25,000 feet. All of the aircrew made it to the ground alive except the Bombadier.

I have tracked his movements from the time he took off on that flight up until he was back into Allied forces custody, all from old records and statements. He spent most his time as a POW in LUFT 4, a camp specifically for airmen.

It was really cool to read his account of being shot down in his own handwriting... Written in 1945. I even know his position in the bomber formation and thier intended target.

There is a building in Talouse that to this day bears a plaque dedicating it by name to each of the men of that aircrew... It was the building where the town's people tried to hide the aircrew from the Germans.

His Bomber was built in Cheyenne, WY in February of '43... By the end of July '43 it was just another pile of junk in wartime France.

 

I’m trying to finish a brake job on an older trailer I spent 3 and a half hours driving out the old anchor pins yesterday. Today’s weather is cool with a chance of tain currently 59 with a high of mid 70s.