The Last Fighter Pilot

[DonH56]

Sent by a friend, may be something to think about.

https://www.facebook.com/ RegneryBooks/videos/ 10156070029429316/

 

[NorthSky]

Excellent!

 

[Blumlein 88]

If you ever see your local PBS station playing "A Fighter Pilot's story" don't miss it. Done in I think the 1990's, it was the story of a fellow who became a fighter pilot just as D day occurred. You might think a pilot has it much better than a grunt in the infantry. And he may, but it still is no picnic. War is not something most humans are built for in the modern sense of war. It will make very clear why the hero in the above video had so much trouble with things for many years after the war was over.

https://videoflier.com/movies/1447216328377060038095

Here is a VHS copy. I have a VHS copy I need to at least put into digitized form.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/29/AR2008122902407.html

http://www.quentinaanenson.com/

 

[tomelex]

Yes, well, not everyone can forgive in these circumstances. My father was in the Navy during WW2, and I was about 13 and we went to Hawaii, and visited the memorial at Pearl Harbor. There were a lot (half the folks there when we visited) of Japanese tourists there as well. I will never forget his fully verbalized outloud comment: "they are here looking at the handy work of their parents". Some things run deep, and I knew even then there was nowhere to go with that conversation because " I did not walk a mile in his shoes". At least that's one war we did not start....at least that's what we were told....

 

[RayDunzl]

At least that's one war we did not start....at least that's what we were told....

The "war" started much earlier, we just weren't a big part of it till we started messing with their plans (sanctions, embargoes), and they thought they'd teach us a little lesson, and we got mad.

 

[watchnerd]

The "war" started much earlier, we just weren't a big part of it till we started messing with their plans (sanctions, embargoes), and they thought they'd teach us a little lesson, and we got mad.

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It wasn't so much about teaching the USA a lesson, it was about trying to seize the Dutch Indonesian oil fields after the US, UK and the other great powers put an oil embargo into place that threatened to disable the Empire's war machine in China.

In order to do that, the Imperial Navy had to make sure the British in Singapore and the Americans in Hawaii wouldn't be capable of interfering. A risky gamble.

 

[RayDunzl]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_flying_aces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Hartmann