Peace and Freedom

I was born in 1951, in a small town and then on our rural farm.  It was a grand time.  The veterans came home in after the war, and wanted a time of peace for their children.

Peace. Freedom.  We road bikes around the town, played all those games that kids play, watch all the westerns on TV.  We all got measles, chicken pox, and mumps, which was normal at that time.  We all went to our local elementary school, moving up grades 1-8 with the same kids.  

Thing was that we weren't  afraid of the world or our country.  We had Ike! Eisenhower was the man who won the war and brought our men home. He could be trusted and was loved. 

Our fathers were all veterans of WW2.  Some were in infantry to defeat the Nazis.  Some were in Army Air Corp, and others were in the Navy. Army and Marines fought some intense field battles in Europe. My dad was a bay gunner on a Superfortress B-29. They flew the CBI (China, Burma, India) hump everyday with a need to refuel in in China.

We felt safe with our Veteran fathers, and no foreign powers could land on our shores. Ike and our dads were our soldiers. They knew how to fight.

Time passed quickly when we were kids. 

Now, for the first time in my life, I am afraid of our country.  Unsafe, vulnerable, threatened--that is how I feel now.  Will the Federal Bureau of Investigation descend on our house? Will SWAT force their way into my house? Will this post get me in trouble?  Will what happen if I  speak my mind in public? What will happen if I pray on a football field? What will happen if I try to defend our home from rioters?  What will happen if... if...

This is not the country I knew back in the 50s.  Our fathers fought for the safety of our and other countries, but now we aren't safe. Are there any  military that will keep us safe? 

What will happen now? Dear Lord, come soon.

 

 "Before he left office in January 1961, for his farm in Gettysburg, he urged the necessity of maintaining an adequate military strength, but cautioned that vast, long-continued military expenditures could breed potential dangers to our way of life. He concluded with a prayer for peace “in the goodness of time.” Both themes remained timely and urgent when he died, after a long illness, on March 28, 1969." whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/dwight-d-eisenhower/

 

Well, then

B-29 Superfortress

 Well, then…

My father began every story with those words.  He’d lean back in the kitchen chair—where most stories were told—and tilted his John Deere cap to the side. Well, then...

Me and Sweetman were on a long run over the China Hump…you know what that is, dontcha?  Well, that is a flight over Burma and China to Japan.  We dropped bombs on towns there... Well, then. 

It took close to, oh say 24 hours to fly there and back. We'd stop over in China to unload food supplies for the hungry Chinese. Then take off to fly low over the waters, so low that we could see the white caps on the waves.  I betcha we coulda reached out to grab some sea water. 

Flew low to conserve fuel.  Plane was heavy.  Man, it was heavy with fuel tanks and artillery.  Me and Sweetman were bay gunners.  The closer we got to Japan, Japs would be buzzing around us like hornets.  Me and Sweetman would shoot at 'em, heavy guns and loud.  Now and then, we’d say, “I got one…”

Well, then.  This story is about a rule we had on the bomber.  The first one who had to pee would have to clean the latrine.  Nasty, bad job.

Ol’ Gandy had to go bad.  The rest of us were pent-up about the mission, we couldn’t have peed for nothing.  But Gundy had to go.

But the latrine?  He decided he’d open the bomb bay doors just a little and pee down them.  Worked just fine.

Then we heard the navigator Ol' Shelton say somethin’ like.  “What’s this?  Yellow sea water?”  He smacked his lips, wiped his face.  “Tastes funny.”

We never told him what it was.  Don’t think he’da like it.

Top row (rt. To lt.): Charles T. Roc, Charles H. Donald, Ronald M. Gandy, Louis E. Peck (my dad), John Sweetman

Middle Row: Capt. William O Ezell (pilot), Lt. Hump Halsey (co-pilot), Arthur M. Shelton, Merril Williams

Front: James D. Waring, Robert Quick

Well, then Dad would stand up, straighten his cap, and go out to do chores.

Some stories don’t need an end.  Others do.