Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: mthrockmor on March 07, 2014, 03:45:54 PM

Title: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: mthrockmor on March 07, 2014, 03:45:54 PM: Years ago a political friend of mine introduced me to her father-in-law, Colonel Charles Stewart. As a young man he was the pilot on a B-24 named "Utah Man" and flew in the first Polesti raid. If you know of that raid, Polesti, Romania...Nazi oil fields. It was a mess. Three groups, bad navigation, bad timing, bad target acquisition, a large number of B-24s lost. Truly an "NOE" raid, at least the egress.

I wanted to interview him though I just learned that he has dementia. He is 97-years old, great physical health but unable to carry on a conversation. Another walking history marker, essentially lost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tidal_Wave
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ploesti.htm
http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/second-world-war/vintage-footage-of-ploesti-air-raid/658281410001/ (This is a newsreel of that mission.)

One of my classics military stories comes from him, really simple. He went into the military Army Air Corp, retired as a Colonel in the Air Force. I asked him,"So Army or Air Force?" He didn't even miss a beat: "Army all the way!"

:salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: GScholz on March 07, 2014, 03:56:33 PM: :( :salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: TOMCAT21 on March 07, 2014, 08:20:00 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: bacon8tr on March 07, 2014, 10:35:55 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: Maverick on March 08, 2014, 10:29:32 AM: :salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: Puma44 on March 08, 2014, 11:06:31 AM: :salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: SmokinLoon on March 08, 2014, 02:11:41 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: Dichotomy on March 08, 2014, 04:16:55 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Learned a sad thing today....
Post by: ozrocker on March 08, 2014, 07:02:00 PM: :salute