NBHorn7
Pimp Daddy
Having a WWII veteran father, who also died at age 93, last January, I identify with this. He didn't talk about it much either. With Dad's death, there is only one living member of his squadron left. The radio man, who is 92, he lives just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. I found his phone number, on the internet. Dad talked to him a few months before he died. You could tell it meant a lot to both of them.
I watched this entire series, with my Dad. He didn't talk a lot during the episodes. He would say things about the different missions, when they would put the names of them up on screen. I did see him nodding a lot, during the D-Day scenes. It was like, yeah, that's what it was like, as if he was remembering it all again, as he watched.
This is what he did twice, the night before D-Day and then on D-Day. He dropped British parrot troopers, first. Then on D-Day, he dropped the American ones.
Only 47% of the troop carrier planes made it back on D-Day, They flew low to avoid detection, but it made them prime targets, for German anti aircraft fire. Flack as it was called, was like large grenades exploding and the shrapnel, could really tear up a plane in those days.
He got hit with some shrapnel once, it also burned him. His plane nearly always got shot up pretty bad. He did say, if they could just get back over those White Cliffs of Dover, they could glide in, back to base, if the engines went out.
He later flew the relief of the Americans, at the "Battle of the Bulge," missions in Holland. That was "Market Gardens." Some others in France, then Germany, and finally Berlin.
There was even a book written about his squadron, called "Green Light." It got it's name from the light, that went from red to green, when they reached the drop zone or "DZ". It signaled the parrot troopers, that it was time to jump.
You have to click on "watch this video on youtube."
