My father joined to be a fighter pilot but he was too tall and ended up on a bomber. He told me one day on a mission something urged him to move from his position just as a piece of flak went through the bulkhead where his head would have been.



His original B-24 was shot up and the crew bailed out into the English Channel except for the pilot and copilot who went down with the plane. On another mission the hydraulics were shot out and they piled into the back of the plane and dragged the tail on the ground to stop it. Afterward he thought they should have deployed a parachute to stop the plane.



On completing his twenty-five missions, returning home and getting out for a few years, he rejoined and retired after thirty years of service.