I may have shared some of this before, but here goes
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Several years ago I had the great occasion to take the father of a friend up in a B-17.
He had been at the time the youngest B-17 pilot in WWII, he was 19.
He had not been back in one since he stepped out in ‘44.
I surprised him by taking him to the 17 and his eyes almost popped out of his head.
As he walked around the plane he did so just as he was doing his flight precheck. We walk to the side door, he said watch your head here as you get in, watch your step here by the bomb bay, this is where we used to have to come back and kick the bombs out that got jammed while on runs over Germany!!
Up to the pilot and copilot seats, bomber, door gunners etc.
It was as if he had literally just stepped in prepping for a bombing run.
He had 35 missions getting shot up but not down. He had to stay longer because there were no crews to replace them.
Unfortunately, he learned the very first flight for the next crew they were shot down over Germany
Definitely “THE GREATEST GENERATION”!