My late dad served in the USAAF during most of WWII, just past away a few years ago. As he put it “I was trained as a B-17 tail gunner, but fate intervened and our base was short of ground support personnel. I spent most of the war going to pubs and chasing cute Scottish redheads – in between regular work and runs to the bomb shelters during fairly frequent air raids.”
My dad was (and still is) one of my greatest heros.
Another that was blessed with fate is the friend that spent his USAF career during the VietNam era as a radio communicator in Rota, Spain. He too occupied himself and his buddies with finding as many local pubs as possible during his off time. No dancing with the local folk, as he was married! Never saw live fire until Gulf War II at age 55! (He had advanced to Master Sgt by then with the TN Air Natnl Guard) he was attached to a forward Regular Army medical unit as their comms guy and comms instructor for THEIR folks.
Thanks, for sharing your stories. I always find personal stories to be the most fascinating kind of history. Your dad and your friend both sound like the had very interesting lives. I work as a World War II historian at an Air Force base and one of the best parts of the job is learning about the people that served in the war. I’ll be posting more nose cone art soon. If you sign up for e mail notification it will automatically let you know when I do.
Very Nice!
My late dad served in the USAAF during most of WWII, just past away a few years ago. As he put it “I was trained as a B-17 tail gunner, but fate intervened and our base was short of ground support personnel. I spent most of the war going to pubs and chasing cute Scottish redheads – in between regular work and runs to the bomb shelters during fairly frequent air raids.”
My dad was (and still is) one of my greatest heros.
Another that was blessed with fate is the friend that spent his USAF career during the VietNam era as a radio communicator in Rota, Spain. He too occupied himself and his buddies with finding as many local pubs as possible during his off time. No dancing with the local folk, as he was married! Never saw live fire until Gulf War II at age 55! (He had advanced to Master Sgt by then with the TN Air Natnl Guard) he was attached to a forward Regular Army medical unit as their comms guy and comms instructor for THEIR folks.
Thanks, for sharing your stories. I always find personal stories to be the most fascinating kind of history. Your dad and your friend both sound like the had very interesting lives. I work as a World War II historian at an Air Force base and one of the best parts of the job is learning about the people that served in the war. I’ll be posting more nose cone art soon. If you sign up for e mail notification it will automatically let you know when I do.