Dad never quite made it to combat- - - -he and his crew were scheduled to fly to England as a replacement for war-worn aircraft and combat crews headed home when Germany surrendered. They spent the rest of the war flying search and rescue and anti submarine patrol off the coast of Florida, as B-17s didn't have the range to be used in the Pacific campaign. My uncle was recovering in a field hospital from burns from his neck to his waist sustained during his swim to the beach when most of the rest of his unit was wiped out at the battle of the bulge. My grandfather's younger brother was killed during the landing on Okinawa- - - -hit in the forehead by shrapnel from a mortar as he waded ashore. When we buried my grandmother in a little cemetery in Dickson county Tennessee back in the early 1980s, my 8 year old daughter asked "Mommy- - - -why is Daddy's picture on that tombstone?". There's a picture of a WW I Marine vet there that is a doppelganger for me!
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!