He had only one good hand.
But he returned and convinced the Air Force that it couldnt fly without him.
My parents thought I was nuts and did until their dying day, he said.
His Uncle Sammy bought him a trumpet at a hock shop.
Here, when they hear you play maybe they wont send you overseas, Sammy said.
He didnt think his one-handed nephew was going to win the war.
Why would they take a one-handed 18 year old?
The Eighth Air Force had more deaths 26,000 than the entire Marine Corps.
Only Pacific submarine crews suffered a higher fatality rate.
On my fathers 19th mission, over Kassel, Germany, he was hit by flak.
He was shot up pretty badly, hit in the legs, buttocks and face.
He was sent back to the United States and was hospitalized for 164 days.
If you have feedback or a story idea then pleasecontact us here.
All this was hidden history in our family.
My father never talked about the war and we learned not to ask.
Im not gonna tell any war stories, hed say.
In choosing silence he was like most men of his generation.
It was a rule with him and millions of other veterans.
Shortly before my father died five years ago, I stumbled over the answer to that question.
It was a short journal of the bombing missions he had flown.
I had no idea hed kept this record.
Airmen were forbidden to keep diaries.
I quickly read through it.
They had limped back to England flying on three of the four engines with another engine threatening to quit.
