I'M GOING TO DIE TODAY

"I'm going to die today," he said. We had just left the briefing tent and Lt.
Jones (not his real name) walked along with me. His comment came as a shock.
"No you're not," I said. He shook his head in despair and choked out " I have a
wife and a kid and I'm know I'm going to die today and the war is almost over.
I'm not going to fly". I grabbed him by that arm hard. " Look, if you refuse to
fly you'll go to Leavenworth for 20 years. Then what will you wife and kid do?
Besides, today will probably be a milk run and you'll come back fine". I didn't
quite believe it, but I said it anyway. Now one of the 6x6's that takes crews
to the flight line pulled up. I pushed Jones toward it and boosted him in
shoving him hard. He flew the mission. The mission wasn't quite a milk run but
we had no losses and all came back fine. Jones never spoke to me again. Any
time we met he would avoid eye contact. If I were in the officers club he would
either leave or sit as far away as possible with his back to me. I guess he was
just too embarrassed about what he revealed. That incident only took two or
three minutes at the most. And I haven't thought about it since that day, until
a recent incident brought it to mind. I was always glad that I could help him
through a bad time. I wonder how Jones feels about that moment when he thinks
about it today?
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Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer