[427TJ]

I just now went to the post office to pick up a package and the man in front of me in line, in his 90s, was a WWII B-24 pilot. I held out my hand and told him that I was a tanker pilot (KC-135 refueling aircraft). We had a great chat for ten minutes. He was shot down on his 6th mission over Germany and was a POW for fifteen months. As he jumped from his burning B-24 (hit in the fuselage fuel tanks where the wings met the fuselage) the B-24 exploded. He let himself fall from above 20,000 feet to below 10,000 before pulling his D-ring. The actor Jimmy Stewart was also a pilot in his bomb group. Very awe-inspiring to be in the presence of such men.