Most Americans today literally have no idea about war and its cost to the participants. Any aircraft loss today is national news. My dad flew P-47s in China during WWII; at his funeral I learned he was the only member if his cadet class to survive the war. We are surrounded by faint-hearted Americans who feel everything should be free and that their choices and actions should have no consequences. I have to say the ISIS folks have a more realistic world view.
> -----Original Message----- > From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of > Floyd Thursby via Mercedes > Sent: Friday, October 14, 2016 10:36 AM > To: mercedes@okiebenz.com > Cc: Floyd Thursby <buggeredbenzm...@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [MBZ] 73 years ago today > > Very interesting. I had a neighbor when we lived near Boston who had been > grabbed to be a B-17 pilot after his first year at Georgia Tech where he was > studying engineering. It was toward the end of the war so he only flew a few > missions but they were scary enough for him, he was like 18 or 19 and in > charge of the plane and crew and missions etc. > Apparently pilots were becoming a rare commodity. > > All this came out one day after he asked me to come over and help with > something that required going up about 2 steps on a ladder. He could not get > up on the ladder, said he had a fear of ladders. Turns out it was related to > these experiences, He said he had absolutely no problem climbing up into > the cockpit and flying some patched-up rattletrap airplane at 30k ft or > whatever, and getting shot at by AA fire, but he could not get on the first step > of a ladder a foot off the ground. > Strange how things manifest. > > --FT > > > On 10/14/16 5:49 AM, Curley McLain via Mercedes wrote: > > Was an bombing mission which incurred record losses, and Oct 14 became > > know as Black Thursday. > > > > http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-eighth-air-force-raid-on-schwei > > nfurt.htm > > > > > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Raid_on_Schweinfurt > > > > 60 of 291 planes were lost, and another 17 were so badly damaged that > > they were scrapped ofter the mission. 22% of the men on the raid > > were lost. > > > > Remember today, the men of the USAAF who flow those missions and > > especially those who were lost. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________ > > http://www.okiebenz.com > > > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > > -- > --FT > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
