Very interesting. I had a neighbor when we lived near Boston who had
been grabbed to be a B-17 pilot after his first year at Georgia Tech
where he was studying engineering. It was toward the end of the war so
he only flew a few missions but they were scary enough for him, he was
like 18 or 19 and in charge of the plane and crew and missions etc.
Apparently pilots were becoming a rare commodity.
All this came out one day after he asked me to come over and help with
something that required going up about 2 steps on a ladder. He could not
get up on the ladder, said he had a fear of ladders. Turns out it was
related to these experiences, He said he had absolutely no problem
climbing up into the cockpit and flying some patched-up rattletrap
airplane at 30k ft or whatever, and getting shot at by AA fire, but he
could not get on the first step of a ladder a foot off the ground.
Strange how things manifest.
--FT
On 10/14/16 5:49 AM, Curley McLain via Mercedes wrote:
Was an bombing mission which incurred record losses, and Oct 14 became
know as Black Thursday.
http://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-eighth-air-force-raid-on-schweinfurt.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Raid_on_Schweinfurt
60 of 291 planes were lost, and another 17 were so badly damaged that
they were scrapped ofter the mission. 22% of the men on the raid
were lost.
Remember today, the men of the USAAF who flow those missions and
especially those who were lost.
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--FT
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