My Dad passed away 29 years ago this past summer and my
memories of him are starting to get frayed around the edges. I do remember that he was a very heroic guy
who loved other heroes!
Like many from his generation he went to sign up for WW
II. When rejected by the Army for flat
feet he was devastated. I never realized how much this devastated him until I
saw the movie Hacksaw Ridge where Desmond T. Doss testified that several people
in his home town committed suicide when they were found to be 4F, unqualified
for service. My Dad went to the Army Air Corp recruiter the next day and the
first question he was asked was whether or not he had been rejected by any
other service. My Dad hung his head and
admitted that the Army had rejected him for flat feet. The Army Air Corp recruiter smiled and said, “Come
on in boy, we don’t do any marching in the Air Corp!” My Dad then enlisted in
the Army Air Corps and ended up as a waist gunner in a photographic B-29
Superfortress in the South Pacific.
On the morning of August 6th, 1945 he and his crew took off
from the island of Guam to make a photographic damage assessment over
Japan. The crew picked this mission to
bring along a real-to-real recorder in order to record their in-plane
conversations to send home to the folks.
Little did they know that on this same morning the Enola Gay
took off from the same island for their rendezvous with the city of
Hiroshima. In a typical military SNAFU,
my Dad's airplane was never meant to take off that eventful day. Once they found out, the decision was made to
let them go; they couldn't very well get on the radios and recall them telling
them they were dropping the big one today!
My Dad's crew members
were speaking very professional knowing that they were being recorded; they had brought a real to real onboard to tape their mission to send home to the folks.
"Pilot to Bombardier. Roger Pilot,
this is the Bombardier." Then the
bomb "Little Boy" reached its target and it looked like a star had
exploded. "Roger Bombardier, this
is the pilot. How far ... What the fudge
is that?" Only they didn't use the
word fudge.
The crew members of the Enola gay commanded by Paul Tibbets were
dressed in radiation suits with leaded goggles to protect them from the
blast. My Dad's crew members were
wearing their usual T-shirts and sun glasses.
After they returned to base they were severely debriefed and
their real-to-real recording was confiscated.
No one knows to this day where that recording is; probably in some
warehouse in Washington next to the Arc of the Covenant!
What a hero, but if you could ask him today, he would say he
was born 60 years too late; he really wanted to be a cowboy. He would have been a regular at the Lucky
Spur in Dodge City, he would have fallen in love with Gentry and he would have
backed Emmett Love up whenever he needed it.
How do I know this, well as a child I watched every John
Wayne western ever made with my Dad, not to mention every episode of Bonanza
and Gun Smoke at least 2-3 times. My Dad
loved the allure of the Wild West and I know he would have loved to have been a
bronco-buster back then. I can picture
my Dad escorting a wagon train or going into a saloon for a drink, a game of
stud poker or some other pleasures.
If my Dad was still alive he would have devoured every word
of "Follow the Stone" and "Don't Poke the Bear" and then
would have moved on to all the Donavan Creed novels.
How do I know he would have loved Donovan Creed? Well, there was that time he decided to live
in the attic for 6 months!
I can't write intriguing stories like John Locke can. But, I am a Christian and I like to share my
faith.
*****
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