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Posted: 5/28/2002 10:50:40 AM EDT
I guess I'm a day late with this, but better late than never.  I wanted to share with you guys a pic of my Dad from WWII (and my Mom from the same period).  He was in the Army Air Corp, but couldn't fly because of his vision.  So he never saw combat.  But he taught instrument flying to other pilots-- in something called a link trainer as I recall.

He passed on in 1996 from cancer.  I miss him, and wish I had asked him more about his WWII experiences.  I do recall as a little boy wearing his "Eisenhower jacket" and pretending to be a soldier.  Always thought those were neat.

[img]www.dimensional.com/~mwluse/mom_n_dad.jpg[/img]
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 11:01:41 AM EDT
[#1]
What a fine fellow he must have been!

[b]marvl[/b], you are indeed fortunate that you have such memories of your Father.

Eric The(ASaluteToYouBoth!)Hun[>]:)]
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 11:08:44 AM EDT
[#2]
A day late...never!  Thanks for sharing.

Link Posted: 5/28/2002 3:51:44 PM EDT
[#3]
Thanks for sharing the pictures marvl.

For your information, the Link trainer was a non-flying mechanical aircraft simulator. Here is a picture:
[img]http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kblummer/images/link%20trainer.jpg[/img]
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 3:59:19 PM EDT
[#4]
Marvl, thanks for sharing.  
[USA]
-T
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 4:14:53 PM EDT
[#5]
To your father I respectfully offer "Well Done."
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 4:18:17 PM EDT
[#6]
Marvl, we got a "family veteran pics" thread somewhere in the last 5 pages going. Feel free to add.
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 4:23:08 PM EDT
[#7]
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 4:25:43 PM EDT
[#8]
[usa]

Thanks for sharing the pics
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 4:35:11 PM EDT
[#9]
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 4:36:22 PM EDT
[#10]
Perhaps your Dad taught my Dad, or his best friend, Frank (pilot of my Dad's B17) via the link?  Whether he did or not, Salute!

When our Dad's generation is finally gone, there will be no one who can say (re the Holocaust, and other atrocities of WWII), "Hell, I was there!  I saw it with my own eyes."

Well, my Dad actually saw the ovens, the bodies.

We honor them by remembering what they told us, and learning from them.
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 5:51:03 PM EDT
[#11]
My dad died from complications of Alzheimer's a couple of years ago.  While he was alive, he never talked much about the War.
I really only heard one or two war stories from him...and that was only after really bugging him for details.  As he got older, he opened up a bit but then the Alzheimer's hit him and he really began losing his mind.
Dad was a waist gunner in a B-24.  He flew thirty missions over Europe from Horsham St. Faith in Norwich.  He was almost shot down two or three times.  I remember him telling me that he was very scared many times.  I remember just some of the little details he told me about air combat with the Luftwaffe:
-At 23,000 feet the air temp is 50 deg below zero.  Take your electric heated gloves off and you freeze quickly.
-Get airsick and the puke freezes so fast you can knock the chunk[s] right out of the oxygen mask.
-The "Yellow Nosed Bastards" from the French town of Abbeville, led by a guy named Galland were the best enemy pilots he met.  They were fearless and would barrel right into the formation shooting all the way.  Some of the other Jerry fighter jocks weren't so brave and would turn away, especially if they were taking hits from the combined guns of the bombers.
-On one mission he told me that a German Me-109 was flying through the formation shooting and a Mustang was hot on his tail.  The Mustang driver was on the radio yelling at the B-24s to stop shooting, because the gunners were hitting him!  The Mustang driver said he would get the German...and he did.
-On another mission, Dad's plane was limping home over the Channel all shot up with two engines and the radio shot out when they saw a single fighter approaching.  He figured they were toast at that point.  As the fighter drew closer, and could see the gunners drawing a bead on him, he turned away slightly to show the profile of a Mustang.  The fighter pilot stuck with them all the rest of the way home...acting as their guardian angel.
-Finally, and I think this shows how crazy war can be, my father earned his DFC early one evening just before landing at their home field.  German night fighters had followed his group back to England and they attacked as the planes were preparing to land.  As his group was circling to land, Dad suddenly saw the B-24 just next to them blow up!  They were only a couple of thousand feet up...so the crew had no chance to bail out.  Then he noticed the twin-engined Me-410 shooting at him!  He said the fighter's cannon shells were passing just below his plane.  The tail gunner then started yelling over the intercom for my dad to come back and help him put the breeches back in his guns!  Seems the guy had a hot date in town and he wanted to beat the rush so he had already disassembled his turret guns.  My dad told me that he yelled back that he was too damn busy right then to help!  He went on to say that he was so scared that he completely ignored the training about short bursts and just held the trigger down on his .50cal.  The Germans had the bad luck to fly right through the bullet stream...which must have killed the pilot or totally disabled the fighter because it rolled over the nosed into the English countryside.  Dad later said, “Funny…all that German had to do was pull up on the stick and he’d have blown us in half.”

They really were the Greatest Generation.
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 6:01:36 PM EDT
[#12]
Quoted:
My dad died from complications of Alzheimer's a couple of years ago.  While he was alive, he never talked much about the War.
I really only heard one or two war stories from him...and that was only after really bugging him for details.  As he got older, he opened up a bit but then the Alzheimer's hit him and he really began losing his mind.
Dad was a waist gunner in a B-24.  He flew thirty missions over Europe from Horsham St. Faith in Norwich.  He was almost shot down two or three times.  I remember him telling me that he was very scared many times.  I remember just some of the little details he told me about air combat with the Luftwaffe:
-At 23,000 feet the air temp is 50 deg below zero.  Take your electric heated gloves off and you freeze quickly.
-Get airsick and the puke freezes so fast you can knock the chunk[s] right out of the oxygen mask.
-The "Yellow Nosed Bastards" from the French town of Abbeville, led by a guy named Galland were the best enemy pilots he met.  They were fearless and would barrel right into the formation shooting all the way.  Some of the other Jerry fighter jocks weren't so brave and would turn away, especially if they were taking hits from the combined guns of the bombers.
-On one mission he told me that a German Me-109 was flying through the formation shooting and a Mustang was hot on his tail.  The Mustang driver was on the radio yelling at the B-24s to stop shooting, because the gunners were hitting him!  The Mustang driver said he would get the German...and he did.
-On another mission, Dad's plane was limping home over the Channel all shot up with two engines and the radio shot out when they saw a single fighter approaching.  He figured they were toast at that point.  As the fighter drew closer, and could see the gunners drawing a bead on him, he turned away slightly to show the profile of a Mustang.  The fighter pilot stuck with them all the rest of the way home...acting as their guardian angel.
-Finally, and I think this shows how crazy war can be, my father earned his DFC early one evening just before landing at their home field.  German night fighters had followed his group back to England and they attacked as the planes were preparing to land.  As his group was circling to land, Dad suddenly saw the B-24 just next to them blow up!  They were only a couple of thousand feet up...so the crew had no chance to bail out.  Then he noticed the twin-engined Me-410 shooting at him!  He said the fighter's cannon shells were passing just below his plane.  The tail gunner then started yelling over the intercom for my dad to come back and help him put the breeches back in his guns!  Seems the guy had a hot date in town and he wanted to beat the rush so he had already disassembled his turret guns.  My dad told me that he yelled back that he was too damn busy right then to help!  He went on to say that he was so scared that he completely ignored the training about short bursts and just held the trigger down on his .50cal.  The Germans had the bad luck to fly right through the bullet stream...which must have killed the pilot or totally disabled the fighter because it rolled over the nosed into the English countryside.  Dad later said, “Funny…all that German had to do was pull up on the stick and he’d have blown us in half.”

They really were the Greatest Generation.
View Quote


Great, great stories from your Dad.
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 6:08:44 PM EDT
[#13]
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 6:18:15 PM EDT
[#14]
Quoted:
To your father I respectfully offer "Well Done."
View Quote
I second that!
Also:
My Father: US Army Air Corps, Luzon, Philippines, & Japan 1944 - 1945
Return Engagement: US Army Signal Corps, Korea

G/F's Dad, US Marine Corps, Corsair Pilot, South Pacific WWII
Return Engagement: Korea.

Both still with us!
Link Posted: 5/28/2002 6:19:35 PM EDT
[#15]
Marvl, we're ALL proud of your folks, and what they did for us all. As Tom Hanks says in the commercials, they really did help save the world. Check your E-mail, please.
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