On 2007-11-01 15:51:33 -0700, "Gatt" said:

He was 92. God speed, General.

Damn. Another fine one of the great generation gone.

Guys like him are pretty dang tough to come by.

I always wondered how well he slept at night long after the war.

Not saying what he did was wrong, but, so many men of virtue who knew they
were fighting the good fight or who had no choice but to kill are haunted by
their war. The pilot of my grandfather's plane never talked about it to his
family, and the co-pilot shut down to the point where he refused to
believe--he got angry at the suggestion--that there were ever B-17s that
weren't olive drab when I spoke with him a few years ago. One of the
officers later committed suicide. Very brave men who did what they had to
do, but couldn't bear to remember.

To be reminded of that every time the History Channel or somebody talked
about dropping The Bomb must have weighed heavy on the old warrior. May he
rest in eternal peace.

-c

He asked that there be no funeral or headstone so that there would be
no place for protesters to gather. He always said that dropping the
atomic bomb was the right thing to do. He said he did not start the
war, but he was determined to finish it.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor