Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

I love World War II history and I love the vets. Get a little morphine in them and they'll tell you stories you cannot get anywhere else. They just drift back to parts of their memory that have been untouched for decades. Add some genuine interest, sympathy, and historical knowledge on my part and you've got yourself one memorable conversation.

I've talked to a fighter ace, an infantry colonel who was in the Battle of the Bulge, and even a German soldier. Once I talked to a French Resistance woman who had a crazy story that sounded like a movie plot -- real cloak and dagger stuff.

But I learned quickly not to ask about the killing unless they go there first.

Once, I asked this infantry vet what the worst was. He seemed pretty unemotional and stoic, but just as he started to respond, he burst out into tears. Oops.

He witnessed one or two of his friends get run over by an enemy tank. The tank drivers, knowing they were over trenches containing soldiers lying flat, would have their treads go in opposite directions, spinning 360's over people. He said he tried to stop the tank with his bare hands.

After the nurse had given one of my cancer patients a healthy dose of morphine, I pulled up a chair and it might as well have been the two of us drinking around a campfire. He just kept telling me more and more about the War.

He was a turret gunner for a B-24 and was shot down after his 18th mission over Austria.

He was based in Italy and loved Italian women -- married one.

Once, while flying a mission, he was the first to see a hole in the wing -- "the size of a basketball" -- and intercommed it to the pilot. The pilot took one look at the fuel pouring out and said, "Pilot to crew: BAIL."

The plane fell out of formation but he held it level for ten minutes while all ten jumped, including the pilot. All ten survived the bailout uninjured, stayed together in the P.O.W. camp, and kept in touch after the war. He considers himself extremely lucky to have been shot down. Vets call this a "Golden Crew"; five of the ten are still alive.

He spent the last seven months of the War in a German P.O.W. camp and was liberated by a band of drunk Russian Cossacks. He said the German camp staff were all very professional but they ran out of food at the end.

The Russians that he saw were basically drunk vandals who destroyed everything, even churches. He would have rather stayed safe in prison than deal with marauding Russian cavalry and a resentful German populace.

He said he'd do it again and that it was just a job -- no different than working for a living. Had to be done.

He thought Patton was a showboating asshole, and said most in the military thought so, too.

He saw two planes collide.

He hopes this country "gets its footing back."

Posted by: Wicketywack / 4:58 PM