TheKrowe
4 posts
Apr 01, 2012
2:21 PM
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Happy Birthday, Daddy! I bet you were a real April Fool's Day joke for Paw-Paw! I remember your stories about plowing a mule on the family farm in Carroll County, Georgia. Times were really tough in the 20's and 30's, and most people there had to grow what they ate, just like you. You were the first person in our family to ever graduate from high school. Quite an accomplishment for poor dirt farmer in Georgia. Later you went to aviation mechanics school and then went to pilot training. Remember the old Steerman bi-plane you first learned on? They still fly them at The Warbird Museum in Kissimmee, FL. I am so proud of you and your colleagues for joining the Might 8th Air Force and departing from right here in Savannah, to save the world from the devil incarnate. I followed you to Hethel Air Base in England where you joined the 492nd bomb group as a co-pilot in a B-24. In just months, the 492nd suffered more casualties than any other bomb group in the war, but you survived to be reassigned and given command of your own B-24. From there the trail goes cold. My sister still has all of your medals, ribbons, wings, bars, and your Lucky Bastard Club certificate. I had pictures of you and your crew, but Hurricane Andrew took them from me in 1992. Every now and then The Witchcraft, last flying B-24 in the world, leaves Daytona Beach and tours with a 17. I went on board once. Man, you had to have a skinny little behind to get into the cockpit. Y'all weren't a bunch of hog-asses like we are today.
People today refer to yours as the greatest generation that ever lived. I believe that and it doesn't surprise me that you were a part of it.
A few months after you passed in February 1977, I met the woman that would become your daughter-In-Law, and the mother of your beautiful Granddaughter, Jillian. You would have loved them both just as much as I do. My father-in-law fought the war with you but in the pacific theater. He was a U. S. Marine and one of the few survivors of the assault on Iwo Jima, Sadly, both he and his wife passed a little over a year ago.
Jillian got married last night to a wonderful Savannah man that you would admire as much as I do. I know you were watching over us. Did you call in a couple of favors to bring the sun out just before the ceremony started? :)
Well, Happy 93rd Birthday, Daddy! I miss you!
Kelly
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