OLDER PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER THESE & THE YOUNGER ONES CAN LEARN ABOUT OUR PAST. THIS BROUGHT BACK A LOT OF MEMORIES.COMPARE WITH HOLLYWOOD TODAY!George Gobel comedian taught fighter pilots, I believe it was in Oklahoma. Johnny Carson made a big deal about it once on the Tonight Show,to which George said, “The Japs didn’t get past us!”Sterling Hayden, US Marines and OSS. Smuggled guns into Yugoslavia and parachuted into Croatia.James Stewart, US Army Air Corps. Bomber pilot who rose to the rank of GeneralErnest Borgnine, US Navy. Gunners Mate 1c, destroyer USS Lamberton.Ed McMahon, US Marines. Fighter Pilot. (Flew OE-1 Bird Dogs over Korea as well.)Telly Savalas, US Army.Walter Matthau, US Army Air Corps., B-24 Radioman/Gunner and cryptographer.Steve Forrest, US Army. Wounded, Battle of the Bulge.Jonathan Winters, USMC. Battleship USS Wisconsin and Carrier USS Bon Homme Richard. Anti-aircraft gunner, Battle of Okinawa.Paul Newman, US Navy Rear seat gunner/radioman, torpedo bombers of USS Bunker Hill.Kirk Douglas, US Navy. Sub-chaser in the Pacific. Wounded in action and medically discharged.Robert Mitchum, US Army.Dale Robertson, US Army. Tank Commander in North Africa under Patton. Wounded twice. Battlefield Commission.Henry Fonda, US Navy. Destroyer USS SatterleeJohn Carroll, US Army Air Corps. Pilot in North Africa. Broke his back in a crash.Lee Marvin US Marines. Sniper. Wounded in action on Saipan. Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Sec. 7A next to Greg Boyington and Joe Louis.Art Carney, US Army. Wounded on Normandy beach, D-Day. Limped for the rest of his life.Wayne Morris, US Navy fighter pilot, USS Essex. Downed seven Japanese fighters.Rod Steiger, US Navy. Was aboard one of the ships that launched the Doolittle Raid.Tony Curtis, US Navy. Sub tender USS Proteus. In Tokyo Bay for the surrender of Japan.Larry Storch. US Navy. Sub tender USS Proteus with Tony Curtis.Forrest Tucker, US Army. Enlisted as a private, rose to Lieutenant.Robert Montgomery, US Navy.George Kennedy, US Army. Enlisted after Pearl Harbor, stayed in sixteen yearsMickey Rooney, US Army under Patton. Bronze Star.Denver Pyle, US Navy. Wounded in the Battle of Guadalcanal. Medically discharged.Burgess Meredith, US Army Air Corps.DeForest Kelley, US Army Air Corps.Robert Stack, US Navy. Gunnery Officer.Neville Brand, US Army, Europe. Was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart.Tyrone Power, US Marines. Transport pilot in the Pacific Theater.Charlton Heston, US Army Air Corps. Radio operator and aerial gunner on a B-25, Aleutians.Danny Aiello, US Army. Lied about his age to enlist at 16. Served three years.James Arness, US Army. As an infantryman, he was severely wounded at Anzio, Italy.Efram Zimbalist, Jr., US Army. Purple Heart for a severe wound received at Huertgen Forest.Mickey Spillane, US Army Air Corps, Fighter Pilot and later Instructor Pilot.Rod Serling. US Army. 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific. He jumped at Tagaytay in the Philippines and was later wounded in Manila.Gene Autry, US Army Air Corps. Crewman on transports that ferried supplies over “The Hump” in the China-Burma-India Theater.William Holden, US Army Air Corps.Alan Hale Jr, US Coast Guard.Russell Johnson, US Army Air Corps. B-24 crewman who was awarded Purple Heart when his aircraft was shot down by the Japanese in the Philippines.William Conrad, US Army Air Corps. Fighter Pilot.Jack Klugman, US Army.Frank Sutton, US Army. Took part in 14 assault landings, including Leyte, Luzon, Bataan and Corregidor.Jackie Coogan, US Army Air Corps. Volunteered for gliders and flew troops and materials into Burma behind enemy linesTom Bosley, US Navy.Claude Akins, US Army. Signal Corps., Burma and the Philippines.Chuck Connors, US Army. Tank-warfare instructor.Harry Carey Jr., US Navy.Mel Brooks, US Army. Combat Engineer. Saw action in the Battle of the Bulge.Robert Altman, US Army Air Corps. B-24 Co-Pilot.Pat Hingle, US Navy. Destroyer USS MarshallFred Gwynne, US Navy. Radioman.Karl Malden, US Army Air Corps. 8th Air Force, NCO.Earl Holliman. US Navy. Lied about his age to enlist. Discharged after a year when they Navy found out.Rock Hudson, US Navy. Aircraft mechanic, the Philippines.Harvey Korman, US Navy.Aldo Ray US Navy. UDT frogman, Okinawa.Don Knotts, US Army, Pacific Theater.Don Rickles, US Navy aboard USS Cyrene.Harry Dean Stanton, US Navy. Served aboard an LST in the Battle of Okinawa.Soupy Sales, US Navy. Served on USS Randall in the South Pacific.Lee Van Cleef, US Navy. Served aboard a sub chaser then a mine sweeper.Clifton James, US Army, South Pacific. Was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.Ted Knight, US Army, Combat Engineers.Jack Warden, US Navy, 1938-1942, then US Army, 1942-1945. 101st Airborne Division.Don Adams. US Marines. Wounded on Guadalcanal, then served as a Drill Instructor.James Gregory, US Navy and US Marines.Brian Keith, US Marines. Radioman/Gunner in Dauntless dive-bombers.Fess Parker, US Navy and US Marines. Booted from pilot training for being too tall, joined Marines as a radio operator.Charles Durning. US Army. Landed at Normandy on D-Day Shot multiple times. Awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.Survived Malmedy Massacre.Raymond Burr, US Navy. Shot in the stomach on Okinawa and medically discharged.Hugh O’Brian, US Marines.Robert Ryan, US Marines.Eddie Albert, US Coast Guard. Bronze Star with Combat V for saving several Marines under heavy fire as pilot of a landing craft during the invasion of Tarawa.Cark Gable, US Army Air Corps. B-17 gunner over Europe.Charles Bronson, US Army Air Corps. B-29 gunner, wounded in action.Peter Graves, US Army Air Corps.Buddy Hackett, US Army anti-aircraft gunner.Victor Mature, US Coast Guard.Jack Palance, US Army Air Corps. Severely injured bailing out of a burning B-24 bomber.Robert Preston, US Army Air Corps. Intelligence OfficerCesar Romero, US Coast Guard. Coast Guard. Participated in the invasions of Tinian and Saipan on the assault transport USS Cavalier.Norman Fell, US Army Air Corps., Tail Gunner, Pacific Theater.Jason Robards, US Navy. was aboard heavy cruiser USS Northampton when it was sunk off Guadalcanal. Also served on the USS Nashville during the invasionof the Philippines, surviving a kamikaze hit that caused 223 casualtiesSteve Reeves, US Army, Philippines.Dennis Weaver, US Navy. Pilot.Robert Taylor, US Navy. Instructor Pilot.Randolph Scott. Tried to enlist in the Marines but was rejected due to injuries sustained in US Army, World War 1.Ronald Reagan. US Army. Was a 2nd Lt in the Cavalry Reserves before the war. His poor eyesight kept him from being sent overseas with his unitwhen war came so he transferred to the Army Air Corps Public Relations Unit where he served for the duration.John Wayne. Declared “4F medically unfit” due to pre-existing injuries, he nonetheless attempted to volunteer three times (Army, Navy and Film Corps.)so he gets honorable mention.And of course we have Audie Murphy, America’s most-decorated soldier, who became a Hollywood star as a result of his US Army service that included his being awarded the Medal of Honor.Would someone please remind me again how many of today’s Hollywood elite put their careers on hold to enlist in Iraq or Afghanistan? The only one who even comes close was Pat Tillman, who turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million over three years from the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the US Army after September 11, 2001, and serve as a Ranger in Afghanistan, where he died in 2004. But rather than being lauded for his choice and his decision to put his country before his career, he was mocked and derided by many of his peers.Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that this is not the America today that it was seventy years ago. And I, for one, am saddened. These men took what they did as just their “responsibility”, their “duty” to Country, to protect and preserve our freedoms and way of life, not just for themselves but for all future generations to come. As a member of a later generation, I’m forever humbly in their debt.Please pass this on to remind people of what real men were like……….not the show dogs of today’s screens.
Category: Military Stories and Humor
GOD BLESS HARRY TRUMAN
Seventy Two Years Ago This Sunday Morning …
The Western World Stood Still In Shocked Amazement
We are soon upcoming on August 6, 2017. Seventy two years ago this Sunday morning, Paul Tibbets took the B-29 Enola Gay from Tinian in the Marianas to Hiroshima Japan in perfect weather, flew a picture perfect mission and successfully dropped the 9,000 pound nuclear device “Little Boy”, the first nuclear weapon ever used in war time… the entire world gasped when the United States made the announcement the next day.
The one huge bomb effectively destroyed the entire Japanese city of over 80,000 urban inhabitants. The U.S. government and the U.S. military as well as the scientific community believed the Japanese would comprehend the overwhelming destructive force of the single bomb and elect to capitulate immediately. We had previously advised them by millions of Japanese language pamphlets of our new all-powerful weapon and its overwhelmingly destructive force. No surrender was forthcoming. The Japanese were completely stunned, they were in disbelief, denial. Neither the Japanese government nor the military leadership could believe the unimaginable destructive force of one bomb. They were so awestruck that anything of a surrender nature was more than their traditional oriental minds could even think about. They were in utter disbelief … their shock was so great they chose to literally do nothing … so they did nothing.
When the anticipated surrender proclamation did not come forward Curt LeMay, with Generals Hap Arnold and Carl Spaatz knowledge and approval, ordered a second nuclear bomb drop mission. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, Chuck Sweeney and crew took the B-29 Bockscar to Nagasaki Japan and made the second drop with “Fat Man”, a plutonium nuclear device. It was a solidly successful mission although it encountered unanticipated overcast weather conditions which required major in flight adjustments. The primary target on August 9 was the City of Kokura Japan, however the primary was completely covered with an overcast which precluded the ordered “visual drop only, the target must be identified and bombed visually”. Bockscar made three separate individual compass course heading approaches to Kokura, the city was never visible on any of the three different heading attempts.
Bockscar then proceeded to the secondary, Nagasaki; it too had near complete overcast conditions. Bockscar, because its fuel supply was now well down, would be able to make but one single approach and drop attempt at Nagasaki. That one attempt was made, miraculously the city became visual at the last possible moment; the last minute hurried drop was made visually as ordered. It wasn’t an absolutely picture perfect bomb run or drop, but “Fat Man” still effectively destroyed the entire City of Nagasaki Japan. Chuck Sweeney and crew had now done their job.
By this time, Bockscar had consumed far more fuel than ever anticipated because of (a) a 45 minute extended “hold” at an early three ship rendezvous point, (b) the three different compass course heading attempts to accomplish the drop at the primary, (c) the flight to the secondary to make the successful drop at Nagasaki, and (d)an inoperative fuel pump which made it impossible to transfer and use 640 gallons of fuel in its rear belly aux tank. Bockscar was now critical on fuel, a return to Tinian, or even Iwo Jima was out of the question. Okinawa was the only possible outside hope. Bockscar turned south toward Okinawa. It barely, barely made Okinawa … as it touched down, its #2 inboard engine died on rollout from fuel exhaustion. The crew had long been prepared to ditch in the open ocean.
Still, even after the two horrendously powerful nuclear bomb drops and the loss of approximately 150,000 urban inhabitants, no surrender was forthcoming from the Japanese.
Generals Arnold, Spaatz and LeMay came to correctly believe Japan was simply stalling and continuing to behead captured U.S. Army Air Corps aircrewmen on a daily basis; they could wait no longer. Five days after the Nagasaki drop, on August 14, 1945, Curt LeMay, long a proponent of the Eighth Air Force European style 1,000 plane raids, ordered the B-29s on Tinian to bomb multiple targets on Japan whereupon thousands upon thousands of 500 to 2,000 pound conventional bombs (6,000 tons!) rained down on Japanese cities, industrial and military installations on August 14 and August 15, 1945. The missions were massive in scope and numbers; they were constant, never ending. Further, the Japanese never knew whether or not the next B-29 bomb drop might be yet another nuclear device. There were hundreds upon hundreds of B-29s returning to Tinian as hundreds upon hundreds of others were departing for Japan. By August 15, 1945, the Japanese could take no more — they surrendered August 15, 1945. Their surrender saved the two planned upcoming Allied land invasions of Japan scheduled for November 1, 1945 and February 1, 1946, the first only 75 days away! The estimated overall Allied and Japanese casualties were predicted to be in the four million people range as it was anticipated the Japanese would fight to the last man, woman and child. Paul Tibbets and Enola Gay, Chuck Sweeney and Bockscar, and Curt LeMay’s over 800 plane B-29 missions precluded that holocaust. The two big bomb drops and LeMay’s huge 828 plane B-29 raids had brought Japan to her knees.
If you are of an age to remember those days, they are forever etched in your memory; if you were not as yet of an age to have lived it, thank your luck stars.
The United States of America, with its indomitable spirit and its unlimited will to win, with its magnificent men and women in uniform, with its military and industrial complex, with its superior overall political and military leadership, combined with FDR, Leslie Groves and the Manhattan Project, Harry Truman, the 509thComposite Group (Tibbets’ B-29 Group) the unimaginable world-wide logistics support effort all combined to save western civilization.
Count your blessings, 72 years ago, August 6, August 9 and August 15, 1945.
Over 400,000 young Americans gave their lives during the 3 1/2 years of World War II for the freedoms we enjoy today … Lest We Forget!
Lest We Ever Forget!!
Cool Story
Yankee Catcher Moe Berg
This is a helluva story…
When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan, in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included. Although he played with five major-league teams, from 1923 to 1939, he was a very mediocre ball player. But Moe was regarded as the brainiest ballplayer of all time. In fact, Casey Stengel once said: “That is the strangest man ever to play baseball”.
>
> When
> all the baseball stars went to Japan,
> Moe Berg
> went with them and many people wondered why he went with
> “the team”
>
>
> Lou Gehrig and Babe Rut
> The
> answer was simple: Moe Berg was a United
> States spy,
> working undercover with the Office of Strategic Services
> (predecessor of today’s CIA).
> > Moe
> spoke 15 languages – including Japanese. And he had
> two loves:
> baseball and spying.
>
> In
> Tokyo, garbed in a kimono, Berg took flowers to the
> daughter of an American diplomat being treated in St.
> Luke’s Hospital – the tallest building in the Japanese
> capital.
>
> He
> never delivered the flowers. The
> ball-player ascended
> to the hospital roof and filmed key features: the harbor,
> military installations, railway yards,
> etc.
>
> Eight
> years later, General Jimmy Doolittle studied Berg’s
> films in planning his spectacular raid on
> Tokyo.
> >
> His
> father disapproved and never once watched his
> son play.
> In Barringer High School, Moe learned Latin, Greek
> and French. Moe read at least 10 newspapers
> everyday.
> >
> He
> graduated magna cum laude from Princeton – having
> added Spanish,
> Italian, German and Sanskrit to his linguistic quiver.
> During further studies at the Sorbonne,
> in Paris , and Columbia Law School, he picked up Japanese,
> Chinese, Korean, Indian, Arabic, Portuguese and Hungarian –
> 15 languages in all, plus some regional
> dialects.
>
> >
> While
> playing baseball for Princeton University, Moe Berg would
> describe plays in Latin or Sanskrit.
> > Tito’s partisans
>
>
> During
> World War II, Moe was parachuted into Yugoslavia
> to assess
> the value to the war effort of the two groups of partisans
> there. He reported back that Marshall
> Tito’s forces were widely supported by the people and
> Winston Churchill ordered all-out support for
> the Yugoslav underground fighter, rather than
> Mihajlovic’s Serbians.
> > The
> parachute jump at age 41 undoubtedly was a challenge.
> But there
> was more to come in that same year. Berg penetrated
> German-held Norway, met with members of
> the underground,
> and located a secret heavy-water plant – part of the
> Nazis’ effort to build an atomic
> bomb.
>
> > His
> information guided the Royal Air Force in a bombing
> raid to
> destroy that plant.
>
> The R.A.F.
> destroys the Norwegian heavy water plant targeted by Moe
> Berg.
>
>
> There
> still remained the question of how far had the Nazis
> progressed in
> the race to build the first Atomic bomb. If the Nazis
> were successful, they would win the war.
> Berg (under
> the code name “Remus”) was sent to Switzerland to
> hear leading German physicist Werner Heisenberg, a
> Nobel Laureate,
> lecture and determine if the Nazis were close to building
> an A-bomb. Moe managed to slip past the SS
> guards at
> the auditorium, posing as a Swiss graduate student.
> The spy carried in his pocket a pistol and a cyanide
> pill.
>
> > If
> the German physicist indicated the Nazis were close to
> building a weapon,
> Berg was to shoot him – and then swallow the cyanide
> pill.
>
>
> Moe,
> sitting in the front row, determined that
> the Germans were nowhere near their goal, so he
> complimented Heisenberg on his speech and walked
> him back
> to his hotel.
>
> > Werner Heisenberg -he blocked
> the Nazis
> from acquiring an
>
> atomic
> bomb.
>
> >
> Moe
> Berg’s report was distributed to Britain’s Prime
> Minister Winston
> Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and key figures
> in the team developing the Atomic Bomb. Roosevelt responded:
> “Give my regards to the catcher.”
>
>
> Most
> of Germany’s leading physicists had been Jewish and had
> fled the Nazis mainly to Britain and the United
> States. After the war, Moe Berg was awarded the Medal
> of Freedom – America ‘s highest
> honor for a civilian in wartime. But Berg refused to accept
> it because
> he couldn’t tell people
> about his exploits.
>
> After
> his death, his sister accepted the Medal. It now
> hangs in
> the Baseball Hall of Fame, in
> Cooperstown.
>
> > Presidential Medal of Freedom:
> the highest award
>
> given to
> civilians during wartime.
>
>
> Moe
> Berg’s baseball card is the only card on display at
> the CIA
>
> Headquarters
> in Washington, DC.
THE SACK LUNCH!
The sack lunch!
I put my carry-on in the
luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned
seat. It was going to be a long flight. ‘I’m
glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will
get a short nap,’ I thought.
Just before take-off,
a line of soldiers came down the aisle and
filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding
me. I decided to start a conversation.
‘Where are you headed?’ I asked the soldier seated nearest to
me. ‘Petawawa. We’ll be there for two
weeks for special training, and then we’re being
deployed to Afghanistan.
After flying for about an hour, an announcement was
made that sack lunches were available for five
dollars… It would be several hours before we
reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch
would help pass the time…
As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if
he planned to buy lunch. ‘No, that seems
like a lot of money for just a sack lunch.
Probably wouldn’t be worth five bucks.
I’ll wait till we get to base.’
His friend agreed.
I looked around at the
other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked
to the back of the plane and handed the flight
attendant a fifty dollar bill. ‘Take a
lunch to all those soldiers.’ She grabbed my
arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with
tears, she thanked me. ‘My son was a soldier in
Iraq ; it’s almost like you are doing it for
him.’
Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the
soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and
asked, ‘Which do you like best – beef or
chicken?’ ‘Chicken,’ I replied,
wondering why she asked. She turned and went to
the front of plane, returning a minute later
with a dinner plate from first class.
‘This is your thanks.’
After we finished
eating, I went again to the back of the plane,
heading for the rest room.
A man stopped me. ‘I saw what you did. I want to
be part of it… Here, take this.’ He handed me
twenty-five dollars.
Soon after I returned
to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down
the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he
walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but
noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my
side of the plane. When he got to my row he
stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, ‘I
want to shake your hand.’ Quickly unfastening my
seatbelt I stood and took the Captain’s hand.
With a booming voice he said, ‘I was a soldier
and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought
me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never
forgot.’ I was embarrassed when applause was
heard from all of the passengers.
Later I walked to the
front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A
man who was seated about six rows in front of me
reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He
left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.
When we landed I
gathered my belongings and started to deplane…
Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man
who stopped me, put something in my shirt
pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a
word. Another twenty-five dollars!
Upon entering the
terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their
trip to the base.
I walked over to
them and handed them seventy-five dollars. ‘It
will take you some time to reach the base.
It will be about time for a sandwich.
God Bless You.’
Ten young
men left that flight feeling the love and
respect of their fellow travelers.
As I walked briskly to
my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe
return. These soldiers were giving their all for
our country. I could only give them a couple of
meals. It seemed so little…
A veteran is someone
who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank
check made payable to ‘The United States of
America ‘ for an amount of ‘up to and
including my life.’
That is Honor, and
there are way too many people in this country
who no longer understand it.’
OLD GUY AND A BUCKET OF SHRIMP
Old Guy and a Bucket of Shrimp
This is a wonderful story and it is true. You will be pleased that you read it, and I believe you will pass it on. It is an important piece of American history.
It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.
Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.
Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end
of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of
the sun is a golden bronze now.
Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end
of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of
the sun is a golden bronze now.
Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing
out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket
of shrimp.
out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket
of shrimp.
Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.
Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings
fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the
hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with
a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’
fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the
hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with
a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’
In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave.
He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another
time and place.
time and place.
When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.
If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird
world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant … maybe even a lot of nonsense.
Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.
Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida … That’s too bad. They’d do well to know him better.
His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World
War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the
Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the
men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.
War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the
Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the
men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.
Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough
waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of
all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran
out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one
knew where they were or even if they were alive. Every day across America
millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found
alive.
waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of
all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran
out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one
knew where they were or even if they were alive. Every day across America
millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found
alive.
The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple
devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie
leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All
he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft…
devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie
leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All
he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft…
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was
a seagull!
a seagull!
Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning
his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he
managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and
his starving crew made a meal of it – a very slight meal for eight men.
Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which
gave them food and more bait . . . and the cycle continued. With that
simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea
until they were found and rescued after 24 days at s ea.
his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he
managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and
his starving crew made a meal of it – a very slight meal for eight men.
Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which
gave them food and more bait . . . and the cycle continued. With that
simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea
until they were found and rescued after 24 days at s ea.
Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull… And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart
full of gratitude.
full of gratitude.
Reference:
(Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm”, pp…221, 225-226)
(Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm”, pp…221, 225-226)
PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before
WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America ‘s
first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew
missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American
hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that
brave men have endured for your freedom.
WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America ‘s
first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew
missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American
hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that
brave men have endured for your freedom.
As you can see, I chose to pass it on. It is a great story that many don’t know…You’ve got to be careful with old guys, You just never know what they have done during their lifetime.