A Tribute to my father.

The B-17 Flying Fortress was a WWII heavy bomber. Crews were required to complete 25 missions before returning home. Many never completed the mission requirements as hundreds of B-17's were shot down resulting in the loss of thousands of crew members.

My father at age 20, was a bombadier / navagator who sat in the bulletproof nose of the aircraft. From that vantage point he dropped hundreds of tons of bombs and saw many aircraft get hit with anti-aircraft fire as well as German fighter 20 mm machine gun fire. He watched them go down in flames. With every mission he never knew if it was his turn to get hit and never make it back.

He wouldn't talk much about his experiences but they were horrific enough to leave him with a severe case of PTSD which we all lived with while growing up. He was a good man and father and I miss him very much. So here's to you dad.