VE Day Lives In Their Eyes
They don’t walk as briskly as they used to. Their eyes are not as sharp. Instead, their eyes tell a lifetime of stories. Some of them tell stories they would rather not recall.
Flying twenty-five thousand feet over Germany, a scared kid named Kenneth Drinnon hung below the belly of the most devastating war machine man had created to that date. It was a B-17 Flying Fortress- massed with hundreds of others- hell bent on stopping Hitler’s war machine.
But it took a toll. Sometimes, when the Germans got the altitude dialed in correctly a burst of flak would hit one of the bombers right in the belly, or the fuel tank. It would caused a blinding explosion- a bright flash, then tiny bits of aluminum and men floated through the cold air back to earth. In an instant, ten lives would be snuffed out.
There was one mission when Ken was told he had to stay in the ball turret to watch one of the plane’s engines in case there was a fire. He had to hang in that plexiglass ball without his parachute. If there was a fire, somebody would have to open his door for him, then he would slip into his chute and bail out. Fat chance of that happening successfully.
And over and over again, men like Sgt. Drinnon made those missions. Others on the ground slugged it out with the last gasp remnants of the German Army.
The old big band songs are played on this sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War Two. People wear clothes that were the fashion of the day. There are American flags in seemingly odd places this week.
But to get the real story, talk to someone who was there. And watch the story in their eyes.
Thanks vets. You are remembered.
Thanks for this one….good article on the Vets.
On the way to Savannah I bacame lost in Vidalia (after a wrong turn). I didnt buy any onions at the time, however, I did quickly gain a knowledge of where the sypnosis for the movie, "Deliverance" came from.
Your artiles are always surprise me so much. So impressive.