Lest We Forget!

This week I was kept spellbound by a small cadre of airmen from the 381st Bomb Group of the Mighty Eighth Air Force who served our nation with incredible heroism during WWII.  The occasion was the annual reunion of this rapidly dwindling number of men who as  “boys”,  just out of their teens,  bravely flew 297  B-17 bombing missions over Europe from January of 1943 until the conclusion of the War in June of 1945.  The focus of the bombing was the industrial facilities that made it possible for Hitler to wage war on the world.

I was privileged to listen to their stories, now related without emotion but clearly revealing  committed resolve,  derived from an intense desire and duty to protect our freedom.  And protect us they did!  I was amazed at their uncanny recollection of details…..struck by their pervasive humility……and smitten by their winsome gentility……each of which seem uncharacteristic of men who have lived an average of 9 decades and who suffered so much in protecting the freedom that we have enjoyed.

Three months ago I, like most of U.S. citizens, didn’t know this group existed.  The Uncle for whom I was named, died in a bombing run over Mannheim, Germany on December 11, 1944.   Although only 4 when he died, I remember him lovingly and vividly.  He had a daughter, born 6 weeks after his untimely death whom I have always viewed as my sister.  Organizing her mother’s belongings after her recent stroke at age 90, brought forth hundreds of letters between her and my uncle.  They revealed much about his life during 1943 and 44 and his death,  that we had never before known.  This was the catalyst that precipitated my fanatic quest for information and men who may have known my Uncle.   This search led me to Dr. Kevin Wilson, a committed historian who presides over the 381st Bomb Group Association and whose father was one of the ground crew responsible for keeping the B-17′s flying at the Group’s base in Ridgewell, England.  In addition to his  gracious support to my research, he led me to the group.

I can’t do justice to the poignant personal war stories that I heard during my time with these men but to not try would defy the degree to which they have touched my life.   Each story is worth a book, but space and time prevent such.

In a soft voice that belied his heroism, Jack Lantz told of being shot down off the coast of  Holland, captured and spending almost 2 years in a tough POW Stalag camp.  As the only survivor of a 10 man crew he considers himself fortunate.   With the use of  a mechanical speaking device to aid speech diminished by cancer, the wiry Len Spivey held the group spellbound with his stories of successfully navigating crews on perilous bomb missions.   Len Fahnestock did not let his struggle with cancer dim his zeal for life and humor with which he told of artifacts brought home from the War.  Ivory Wilson and Dick Schneider revealed the almost unbearable conditions the airmen endured in prosecuting the War with their bombing.  Minus 60 degree temperatures at 30,000 feet with heated suits that occasionally shorted out and oxygen masks that froze to their faces comprised some of the conditions of 8 hour flights from Ridgewell to Germany and back to their Essex county base.

Every mission was fraught with the terror that emanated from the anti-aircraft fire and flak from German guns and canons.  Jim Grey told of the terror of a shell ripping past him without exploding…quite unusual.  Flak, or ak-ak as some called it, could be, and often was, lethal to both aircraft and crew.  It took the life of my “Uncle Bud” on that cold December day in 1944.  To provide rest from the ravages of flak on their emotions,  airmen were frequently given respite in flak houses throughout England.  And then it was back to business.

Sam Whitehead was once a tall, ramrod straight B-17 pilot who,  in the photograph on the front of a book about the Eighth Air Force,  walked stridently from his aircraft after a successful mission.  Still today he has an ever present smile on his yet rugged face.  Only slightly slowed by the years, he looks like he would still command the respect of his crew as he did 65+ years ago.

The last day of the reunion was spent at the “Mighty Eighth Museum” in Savannah, Georgia.  A large photograph of a young U.S.  airman with coal black hair, and in the grasp of what seemed to be enemy civilians,  adorned a prominent place in the museum.  In reality this downed airman was in the grasp of the French underground who,  in the midst of  harrowing contacts with the enemy, protected him for five and a half months as they provided “safe” passage back to Ridgewell.  The man in the photograph was one of our reunion group, Joseph Walters,  now a frail but energetic gray haired man with a razor sharp recall of his experiences.

With tears that punctuated my feelings, I told Bombardier and instructor Bob Angevine what warmth I felt fellow-shipping with him at dinner much the same as he and my Uncle did when they shared a songbook at church…as was related in one of his letters to my Aunt.   Herb Kwart told of talking with my Uncle before a mission.  Cross referencing flight logs revealed that the briefing could only have occurred on the day of my Uncle’s death.

Bill Palmer served at Ridgewell from its takeover from the RAF in 1943 until its closing in 1945.  After the War he served many congregations as a Baptist minister and denominational organizations as their leader.  He also chronicled his experiences at Ridgewell with two fantastic and detailed scrapbooks of photographs and memorabilia.  These treasures attracted the continuous attention of his fellow servicemen and others throughout the reunion.  His detailed documentation will ultimately become a part of the history preserved at the Savannah based museum.

Other than the reminiscing  of a few dozen aged airmen and some interested bystanders what does this all mean?  We are in a battle for our freedom like none we have faced since WWII.  This time the fight is largely on our own shores and arguably within our own government.  As a people, we don’t have the committed resolve the Nation had post Pearl Harbor.  We are seeing the freedoms fought for so nobly by the Eighth Air Force among thousands of other service men and women and millions of sacrificial civilians, wrested from our feeble grasp.  As was predicted years ago by Soviet dictator Nikita Krushchev, the U.S. is being overtaken from within.  Our defenses from those who seek to destroy us from without are being compromised.  The CIA’s ability to use covert actions to uncover plots against us is being thwarted for political expediency.  Our ability to  wage “war on terror” is being marginalized  as is exemplified by the administration’s insistence on calling it “overseas contingency operations”.  The financial cost and lost lives of WWII provided for us the almost unabated freedom we have enjoyed for the 56 years until the attacks of 911 and the 8+ years since.  We must let neither the cost nor the lessons of WWII be lost.  “Man Up” America….it’s all on the line!