My Favorite Veteran

I woke up this morning thinking of Pop. My Grandpa was a WWII veteran. He flew as a Bombardier in a B-17 named Lightening Strikes. On his eighth mission, his plane was shot down over the Baltic Sea. He was the only survivor of his crew of 10.

"Thousands of thoughts rushed through my mind as I hung onto my parachute for what seemed like half an hour, though it was likely less. When the wind occasionally subsided, the lower part of the canopy came down into the water, and the waves threatened to collapse it. Was the wind taking me closer to land or more into open seas? Why was I all alone? Where was my crew? What had really happened to our plane, the pilots, the co-pilot, navigator and others? What else might I have done to help them? Just one of them! Any of them.

Fervent prayers for rescue filled my heart. I called upon my Father in Heaven at first quietly, then sometimes my words burst aloud. Soon the top of a ship's smokestack came into view. As it became taller I recognized a big, black swastika on the stack."

My favorite picture. Isn't he handsome?

He was rescued by the Germans and managed to retrieve his escape kit, which included French paper money, a large map (of Holland, Belgium, Germany and France) on a silk scarf, a compass, a hacksaw blade, and water purification tablets. He obtained a needle and thread and hid them behind zippers and the lining of his clothing.

He was loaded onto a train and managed to escape by breaking a window and jumping out of the train. He was recaptured and sent to a permanent POW camp for prisoners of the air war called Stalag Luft III. Pop had received special training for a highly secret unit responsible to oversee escape and evasion efforts of the US known as MIS-X. This training included the manufacturing and delivery of escape aids hidden in parcels, which were specially marked for MIS-X detection, letter codes (cryptography) to set up a system to send and retrieve messages. Pop wasted no time and soon commenced helping to dig tunnels with his "roommates" to attempt escape. Although this attempt failed, he successfully received "hot packages" of compasses hidden in cigarette packs, pieces of maps in between decks of cards, etc. Pop wrote several coded letters to his parents and his girlfriend (Grandma). Their camp was finally liberated by General Patton on April 30, 1945.

Pop and Grandma on their wedding day

Peter, Andy, Amy, Jon, Grandma & Pop at WWII Memorial 2004

"I'll never forget that day when the first tank made it onto the compound, it was swarmed over by the happy POWs. We were free at last...I think about all those who lost their lives...in the battles...in the concentration camps...in the Stalags...in the civilians in the cities ...and that tremendous, horrible number of deaths. I think about what it took to win the war, for our freedoms to survive, and how close we came to Hitler's Nazi domination of the earth. I think of the delicate balance between tyranny and healthy democracy. And I think about our belief in a compassionate Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ and the roles they play in all of this.

Freedom is worth the sacrifice. And that's probably more important than anything else in this world."