The aviators of the Greatest Generation are among my heroes. The airmen of the Mighty Eighth had 29,000 souls killed in their missions exceeding the number of Marines killed in the Pacific. Seventy-five percent of the airmen of the 8th never completed 25 missions because of losses. Towards war's end, their missions were important not just for the destruction of the German factories, but mostly to lure the Luftwaffe airborne so that they could be shot down by the Mustangs to the extent that D-Day could take place without an effective German air support. Mom's oldest brother was shot down in a B-25 over Wewak, Papua, New Guinea, on Oct. 16, 1943, reported by the Japanese to have been taken alive, but never came home after the war ended. Another Mitchell flew over Tom's plane and took a photo of the plane in the ocean after ditching with the crew swimming to rafts. I have a copy of the photo which appeared in a book written about his Bombardment Group. There are fewer than 119,000 WWII veterans alive today. If a GI was 17 and landed at Normandy in June of 1944, he would be 97 today. Your dad was truly an American hero and the world would be a different place today but for the likes of him and others of his generation. Gil
