Saturday, June 06, 2009
Today is a 60th aniversary of D-day.
I was at dinner tonight with my mother and some friends of hers.
Jack was an old guy, I noticed he had half his ear missing on one
side. He walked slowly, bent over, had trouble with the steps to my
mom's house. We talked about all kinds of stuff, a little church, a little state.
D-Day came up and ssomebody asked Jack what he did in the war.
He talked about flying troop transports into europe, dropping paratroopers,
taking loads of 5 gallon cans of gas to Patton who was driving tanks
across France as fast as he could get gas.
On one flight in 1944 he stuck his hand out of the cockpit, I guess to
check air conditions.
His high school ring, from A I Dupont High in Wilmington Delaware,
with his initials engraved in it, flew off his hand, gone. In 1946 he
gets a letter and package from a guy in Cincinatti.
The guy had found the ring on the side of the road in France, and
tracked down which A I Dupont graduate had those initials, and found
out his address to send the ring back to him.
Cincinatti is named for Cincinattus, a Roman who was called up to
serve as a general, won the war, and then quietly went back to his
farm. Jack was kind of like that.
I was at dinner tonight with my mother and some friends of hers.
Jack was an old guy, I noticed he had half his ear missing on one
side. He walked slowly, bent over, had trouble with the steps to my
mom's house. We talked about all kinds of stuff, a little church, a little state.
D-Day came up and ssomebody asked Jack what he did in the war.
He talked about flying troop transports into europe, dropping paratroopers,
taking loads of 5 gallon cans of gas to Patton who was driving tanks
across France as fast as he could get gas.
On one flight in 1944 he stuck his hand out of the cockpit, I guess to
check air conditions.
His high school ring, from A I Dupont High in Wilmington Delaware,
with his initials engraved in it, flew off his hand, gone. In 1946 he
gets a letter and package from a guy in Cincinatti.
The guy had found the ring on the side of the road in France, and
tracked down which A I Dupont graduate had those initials, and found
out his address to send the ring back to him.
Cincinatti is named for Cincinattus, a Roman who was called up to
serve as a general, won the war, and then quietly went back to his
farm. Jack was kind of like that.
Comments:
Post a Comment
