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Post War Reflections

Heroes Remember

Post War Reflections

Well it's hard to, to say that he gave his life and it was a good thing, 'cause it was a tough thing. But it was unfortunately a necessary thing. Hitler would have run all over Europe and who knows what would have happened, if he hadn't been stopped. It was necessary, very necessary, the war. And it had a terrific impact on the change after the war. Like all countries, as you know all of a sudden realized what war was about and started to settle down, Germany and Italy particularly. And it, it's sort of hard to say, I really feel for those people that lost their lives really feel, except for the grace of God, here goes I, you know I could have been a pilot too, and shot down. I lost a lot of friends, a lot. I didn't get to know the people flying as well as I knew the pilots better, but I didn't get to know a lot of them. Like the ground crews that worked on the crew, they became part of a family. There was a pilot and his crew of seven, and the ground crew, they were a team and when an airplane didn't come back, those people were shaken. But you sort of accepted the fact that there were going to be losses and they'd come back and well, aircraft's gone, we'll have to go and help somebody else until a new replacement comes in. It wasn't a hardened approach, but it was an accepted fact that you would lose them. Whether people's lives are worth it or not, I don't, I'd say it's hard to say, because it, it had to be done. And I've forgotten how many we lost, 15,000 I think in the air force, which was a lot of people. A lot of those people at wars all go through their school probably were lost within days or months or maybe a year after they started firing on, on missions.

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