Remembering One Vet – My Father.

[Larry124]

My father passed away on 9 October, one day shy of what would have been his 88th birthday.

After Pearl Harbor he joined the USN and was selected for flight school. He wanted to be a carrier pilot. During training he tipped a Stearman 75 biplane up onto its nose on landing. That was a “one strike and you’re out” wash-out. Forty years later I gave him a framed picture of two of his grandchildren standing in front of a restored Stearman at an air show. As children each year he would take my brother and I to the Philadelphia Naval Base for the Armed Forces Day Open House.

He transferred to the USAAF and was commissioned as a 1st Lt. Bombardier-Navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress. He always complained that in England his unit got the middle version B-17’s -- without the chin turret and in which bombardier & navigator were a one man job.
He flew 29 combat missions over Europe including those in the Battle of the Bulge. He always got mad at news stories that the USAAF was grounded at the beginning of the battle. He said: “We were up there, we just couldn’t see through the clouds to find a target!” At that point in the war the orders were that if you couldn’t find a target you were to return to England with the bombs aboard. Not fun. He was awarded the Air Medal.

After VE Day he was reassigned to the States and was being retrained for B-29’s on VJ Day.

About forty years later he saw a restored B-17 in flight on route to an air show at the Willow Grove (PA) NAS.

He had a WWII Vet automobile license plate. He (accompanied by my son) was a guest of former Senator Bob Dole at the dedication of the WWII Memorial in Washington DC.

His best friend was my uncle, still kicking at age 92 and a veteran tanker of Patton’s 3rd Army.

The USAF sent an E-4 and E-5 to his funeral. Not many men are recognized as veterans of three of the five armed services. I have the flag.

God bless the Veterans of that Greatest Generation -- and all those who followed.