Posted on 05/25/2009 5:36:40 AM PDT by kellynla
On this Memorial Day, thousands of small American flags will fly in cemeteries near your home, next to the headstones of men and women who defended this country. Flags also will decorate the thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery as well as sacred ground throughout Europe and the Pacific that bears long, straight rows of ivory-white crosses and stars. Many of the young Americans who rest under these simple markers did not live past the age of 19 or 20.
There also are tens of thousands of equally young men who fought gallantly for this country during World War II, who helped turn the tide at a critical moment and will never have a flag placed on their graves. That's because they never had graves in the first place. These are the men of Army Air Forces, who were the first Americans to fight the Germans in Europe, long before any ground troops went into action.
When our nation was struggling to build an Army, Navy and Air Force right after Pearl Harbor, these initial bomber crews were sent to Europe in 1942. The Axis reached its strength at that time. The Germans had an iron lock on the European Continent and were halfway through Russia. They controlled the skies and had the most powerful army and air force on the planet.
The War Department in Washington made a calculated decision to use these early crews as cannon fodder. In a deadly war of attrition, the B-17 crews were sent out to face the murderous flak and more experienced German fighters in order to whittle down the Luftwaffe. The American high command understood that the United States had a much greater industrial capacity and could replenish its bombers and crews faster than the Germans.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Never Forget! "Freedom is not Free!"
Semper Fi,
Kelly
GREAT post and great article. Thank you.
If memory serves me, the US itself lost 60,000 aircrew over Europe alone.
Something like 15,000 Americans were killed in the US in flight training, and domestic duty flight.
Staggering information. Thanks for posting.
Britain is filled with Cenotaphs -`every village seems to have one - memorializing the many young men who didn't come home (alive or in a box) from WWI. i know there is an Air Force Memorial planned, but what of these men?
LIVE IN FAME or GO DOWN IN FLAME!
Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force.
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