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The Greatest Generation.

I was unofficially celebrating my 29th anniversary in the military with my family by having dinner at the Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club in Oxnard California. Quietly hidden in the corner I noticed a large party entering the dining area. One of the members of this party who was in a wheelchair was being helped into the room. I couldn’t help but notice he was wearing a baseball cap that had “100th Bomb Group” embroidered on the top and a picture of a B-17 below. It was obvious this gentleman was a World War II veteran and a member of the Greatest Generation.

I excused myself from the table. My wife knew exactly what I was going to do, I’ve done it dozens of times before and will continue to do it.

The veteran was appropriately seated at the head of the table. After his party settled into their seats I went to the head of the table and said; “Please excuse me for interrupting, but I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your service and let you know how much everyone appreciates the sacrifices you made for our country and humanity.”

He smiled, shook my hand and seeing me in my uniform proceeded to thank me for my service. Before I could say anything else his family insisted I join them for dinner, a chair was brought and I found myself sitting right next to to the gentleman. Call it intuition but I could tell this man was the aircraft commander (Also known as the AC, the pilot in the left seat).

Because I was still in uniform he could identify my rank and respectfully referred to me as “Colonel.” Knowing better what to ask and what not to ask I inquired which model B-17 he flew. “The F model “he replied, “we were fast but the G model had better guns.”
His granddaughter who was seated next to me grabbed my arm and said “Dad, was shot down twice and flew 24 missions.”

That sentence sent chills down my spine. Being shot down once was dangerous enough, but twice !?! However, it wasn’t the fact he was shot down twice that sent chills down my spine, it was the fact he flew 24 missions. In case you didn’t know, aircrew in WW2 were required to complete 25 missions. After their “25” they were rotated home to train new bomber crews in the States.

Why only 24? I knew why but knew better to ask. His granddaughter said “Dad tell him the story about the English Channel.”

I said, “I don’t want to intrude, I’ll leave you to enjoy your dinner.” He knowingly looked at me and began to tell the story. . .

“We were going home from Schweinfurt when we took some flak from a Triple A battery (Anti Aircraft Artillery). I lost the number 3 engine (The B 17 had four engines) and the number 1 and 2 engines were hit and losing power. My plan was to nurse her (the aircraft) west towards France and turn right at the French costal town of Le Havre into the English Channel, then on to England. Not long after we were hit we lost the number 2 engine and began to lose altitude. By the time we approached the coast of Le Havre we were about 100 feet off the deck. I was so busy trying to keep the ship in the air I nearly clipped the bell tower of a church. As we approached the coast and got over the water I began to breathe a sigh of relief, we just may make it home after all. When we were about two miles off the coast the number one engine blew two pistons and caught fire. I called into the intercom “Hang on guys, we’re going down.”

We made a water landing and fortunately everyone got out ok. Before we could worry about what to do next, I saw a French fishing vessel on the way to rescue us, that was a huge relief. . . but not long after that our relief turned into dread. There was a motor boat coming at us very quickly from the east. It was a Nazi patrol boat on the way to pick us up. Seeing this, the French fishing vessel, turned around in the other direction. The Germans picked us up and we spent 18 months in a POW camp.”
The room was silent. It seemed like an eternity before anyone said anything. I placed my hands in my lap, cleared my throat and said;
“Today’s United States Air Force is the best trained, best equipped, most disciplined, most capable and most feared fighting force in the world, ONLY because we are standing on the shoulders of GIANTS like you, “ tapping his left shoulder as I completed my thoughts.
All eyes turned to the head of the table and the AC said “. . . but I’m only 5’ 10!”

We laughed, I thanked him for his time and service when his very proud granddaughter added “Today is his 103rd Birthday and tomorrow the Condor Squadron (A group of WW2 T6 aircraft) are going to do a flyby to celebrate.”

I returned to my table with tears in my eyes, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I waived to Summer, our waitress, and ordered an ice cream Sunday for the AC and asked if the entire staff would join me in singing Happy Birthday after their dinner.
Not only did the entire staff join my family in singing Happy Birthday, but everyone in the room enthusiastically joined in the chorus.
The next day at 10:00 am three T6s from the Condor Squadron majestically flew over the Harbor in tribute to this Hero and all the Heroes of the GREATEST generation.

There is no adequate way we can thank them for their service.
What would the world be like today without their sacrifices?
I shudder to think.

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https://www.condorsquadron.org/

^^^ I would love to see that. Great post.

I spent three years at the Sikorsky Factory in Bridgeport but also went to Igors Sikorsky's office in Stafford. Really neat place.

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I was asked by a friend of mine a few dayss ago, a prior Marine, if I knew the story of wearing Igor's Fedora. I did not and have not worn it. Thought I would share.

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https://sikorskyarchives.com/igor-sikorskys-fedora/

Very small portion of the factory.

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Phenomenal job flying brand new helicopters!

Thanks for sharing the story of your visit with the WWII vet...

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Quote:

Photo : Amelia Earhart at the 36th Street Airport (Miami International) on May 24, 1937 -
23 May 1937: Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, her husband, George Palmer Putnam, and aircraft mechanic Ruckins D. “Bo” McKinney, arrive at Miami, Florida, aboard her Lockheed Electra 10E Special, NR16020. This completed the fourth leg of her second attempt to fly around the world.

From , Miami Tribune, Vol. IV, No. 191, Monday, 24 May, 1937, Page 3, Columns 2–4 . . "on Sunday morning, May 23, headed on southeastward for Miami. From New Orleans we laid a straight course across the north-easterly “corner” of the Gulf of Mexico to Tampa, a matter of about 400 miles. It was Bo’s first considerable over-water flying and I am not sure he was very enthusiastic about it. That Sunday afternoon we reached Miami, and dug in for a week of final preparation, with the generous aid of Pan American personnel."— Amelia Earhart
—Miami Tribune, Vol. IV, No. 191, Monday, 24 May, 1937, Page 3, Columns 2–4

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Here are the impressions of an old Navy fighter guy.

Let’s get the big one out of the way: tactically, it was ridiculous. I can think of a dozen better ways to accomplish that mission, and I’ve been out of the service for nearly 30 years. From a purely military standpoint… well - I had to shut off that part of my brain
But… there were some things I’m glad to say they got right.

It was by far the best depiction of how physical an air-to-air fight is for the participants. You’re straining just to maintain consciousness, not to mention swiveling your now-120 lb head around to see what’s going on. They actually depicted GLOC - G-Induced Loss Of Consciousness - very accurately, with tunnel vision setting in. Time to ease that turn for a second and get some blood back up to your noodle. They filmed many of those scenes in the backseats of real fighters, and showed how face-stretching it can actually be. The carrier deck scenes were much more accurate than the original, too.

That said, I have a few nits to pick. I’ll bet the Technical Consultants had a fit about these, too.

The Hard Deck - this isn’t some sort of namby-pamby You’ll-Get-In-Trouble-If-You-Break-This overly cautious safety rule. If you go below the hard deck, you’re dead. Out of the fight, because you hit the ground. Paying attention to your altitude, and the elevation of the ground below you, is a critical part of air combat. As we say: The ground has a Probability of Kill of 1.0. It’s undefeated. If you start a vertical maneuver that takes 3000 feet to recover from at 2999, you’re a skid mark. Flying an enemy into the ground is a perfectly viable strategy, so you practice with a little cushion.

Throwing away the book - sorry, but you can’t “Maverick” a plane into doing any better than it’s gonna do, and that’s already been figured out for you. This doesn’t mean your hands are tied, but it does mean that flying your numbers (best turn speed, best rate-of-climb) are the best you’re ever gonna do, no matter what your reputation is. Also, any maneuver that dumps all your energy instantaneously (Maverick’s famous pitch-up/hit the brakes) leaves you a sitting duck. Pull that on a competent pilot in any fighter and he’s going to go straight up, while you watch helplessly. Then he’s going to roll over the top, and pop you.

Their “Fifth Generation” fighters are so much better than our older, fourth-generation planes. Well… depends. It turns out that designing, and mass-producing, fifth-generation fighters are two separate skill sets, and right now the US is the only country with both. Russia and China have both demonstrated fifth-gen-ish fighters, but have only produced a couple dozen at best, and are nowhere near exporting them. Besides, in a close-in fight the pilot with the best situational awareness has the advantage, and that’s something Western planes are much better about supplying. Realistically, if the Navy had to use fighters for this mission, they’d have used the F-35s. But you can’t film the actors in a real F-35, because none of them have back seats.

Stealing a plane, especially if you destroy it, doesn’t get you a chewing-out and another assignment - It gets you jail. Nobody wants to risk their lives around a loose cannon, no matter how good they are at certain things. There’s even a term for this: NAFOD. No Apparent Fear Of Death. These are the ones who’ll get you killed with their recklessness. Real courage isn’t fearlessness; it’s going ahead even when you’re properly afraid.

Overall, I did enjoy the movie, and even got a tear in my eye when they brought in an old F-14, which is still the coolest-looking fighter jet ever. And I was damn proud to have flown them.

^^^ Apparently so, at least when the below article was written in 2020:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/11/21363122/boeing-747s-floppy-disc-updates-critical-software

Neat insight.

I immediately thought of this old Lampoon ad:

Not safe for OT, open at your political peril!: https://www.theretrosite.com/national-lampoon-ted-kennedy-vw-ad/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racerbvd (Post 12326514)

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