Back from Florida and have much work to catch up on. Spending 10 days with the WWII generation is always special and as their days wane are taking on a special poignancy that is truly gut wrenching and emotionally intense. My father and I had a stormy relationship for many years but for years now have spoken every day and become closer than ever. Dad was a wing gunner and radio operator on B-17's in the ETO and would barely speak to me about it until the last 10 or 15 years. I wear his flight watch now and my sons enjoy talking to him about the old days and particularly about his combat experience.
509th BS Myassisdraggin 4338591 RQ-U
Here are the specs from his plane the Myassisdraggin scroll down to the 509th bomber group from some great Links- Here and Here Catch the names of the bombers.
He is accepting his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer well and knows his fate is in the hands of the father of us all-his acceptance is a remarkable feat and his children and grandchildren are richer for it. At his age the cancer may grow slowly.
Unfortuneatly his set doesn't buy into the Iraq war strategy. They simply don’t see the link between terror and Iraq and think it is wrong from a tactical perspective-there also were undercurrents that since Pakistan already has nukes the cat is out of the bag already. There is a visceral dislike of Bush on a class basis and again if you are an elitist you'd better be a democrat-vz that generations idol FDR.
My father in law is a reluctant Bush supporter based on the abortion issue but somehow believes Bush is a disaster for the environment.
Since I should be down there a great deal in the next three months maybe I can change some minds at the pools and in the waiting rooms of doctors offices.
Funny, My dad was a navigator in the army air corp and had a bronze star for 11 bombing missions over Germany. He NEVER spoke about it until the last time i talked to Him. he died 3 weeks later at age 57. I applied for his service record over christmas. http://public.fotki.com/TonyKiniry/my_pop/
Posted by: T.K. | April 27, 2004 at 08:35 AM