When I lived in NJ, a restaurant opened up with the name of the 94th Bomb Group, which was my father-in-law’s outfit. They had an address for their association there, and he joined. Awhile later, they had a reunion where BG Fred Castle was enshrined in the NJ Aviation Hall of Fame. Castle had been CO of the 94th, and had been in Bill’s plane a few times on missions because his plane was lead bombardier. A few months after gaining flag rank, Castle was lost in action.
One of the men Bill met served later in the war, and most certainly served on combat missions. But, for some reason, he spoke about missions that he could not have flown. Bill called him out on it, and the man backed off. I’m not defending it, but it does happen.
I also have seen the total opposite of that. Most men my dad’s age served in WWII, so it was generally no big deal. There was a really nice English teacher in high school, his name was Mr. Leighton. It wasn’t until he died in the 90’s and his obit was printed that I found out he was a crew member of the Memphis Belle!
I guess it takes all kinds...