Today, for some reason I felt like reviewing a special video in my "save it" file. It's about the slow fading away of an entire generation of WWII pilots from the scene. They're almost all gone now. Not quite, but almost. These men flew North American P-51 Mustangs a very long time ago.
The men were mostly boys at the time. They climbed into the cockpit of a plane designed with a slide rule and made with care, piece by piece by men and women on an old fashioned assembly line. Each part was fastened with blind rivets to another, and the final result was the finest fighter plane the world had ever seen.
Now, this video is a glimpse of one of those boys who at 20 years of age flew his Mustang straight into battle. With a whine and a roar he chased and caught enemy planes that were in the sky specifically to shoot him down. Their object was to kill him. But he survived. Mission after mission, he survived.
When I saw this video an entire period of my life came back to me. I remembered the headlines, the newsreels, and the patriotism of my family and neighbors. It was men (boys) like Jim Brooks that put the enemy out of business. They were, and are, my heros.
Enjoy the show . . .
Now, wasn't that just a fascinating reminder?
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