I'm watching a re-run of the HBO series, "The Pacific" and I never knew why

[OldDem2012]

28. My Dad was a nose-gunner on a B-24 stationed in Italy, and ....

....the first time he talked about his experiences in WWII was when he faced a major health scare at the age of 76. I learned about Dad being able to see civilians running for bomb shelters, clouds of flak, planes being shot down, and counting chutes. I also learned about the time his plane almost had to ditch in the Adriatic when they lost two engines on one of their missions. He also gave me his pictures from the war and the medals he earned.

After doing some research and tracking down a couple of online organizations, I found all of his old crew and and gave Dad their phone numbers. Dad was pretty surprised and called them all within a couple of days. None of them had talked with each other since the day they were discharged....pretty wild.

Dad survived pancreatic cancer and lived another 13 years before he passed away in 2009. I'm grateful for every additional second.