R.I.P to the last of the Dam Busters.

[johnr]

Respect sir, and thank you.




If you would like to know a little more about him go here;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Munro

and an interview here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0193kx5

[oldbike54]

 Brave men doing a scary job , yes , thank you sir .

  Dusty

[ken farr]

Godspeed Squadron Leader......



kjf

[Aaron D.]

Godspeed to him.

[cruzziguzzi]

Man did he have a good run.

To have his response when one asks: "What sis you do in The War Les (Daddy)...?"

Seems I read last week that the last navajo "Code Talker" passed as well.

Studs on call... what a group of men they were.


Todd.

[cloudbase]

And one from this side of the pond:

Brig. Gen. Fritz Payne, the country’s oldest living American Fighter Ace, died Thursday at the age of 104. He had just celebrated his birthday on July 31.

Payne served as a pilot during World War II, where he earned the title of ace. The honor is reserved for those who have shot down at least five enemy planes during aerial combat in World War I, World War II, Korea, or Vietnam.

Of over 60,000 pilots who flew in those wars, only 1,447 were able to earn this title.

In May, Payne was given the Congressional Gold Medal, along with the other 77 remaining aces. Retired Air Force Gen. Charles Cleveland accepted the award on his behalf, as he was too ill to attend.

[ITSec]

A couple years back, I lost a good friend and mentor. He had signed up for the Royal Canadian Armed Forces as soon as the war started in 1939. While he was a wiz at flying and doing math in his head, he had poor uncorrected eyesight and was never allowed a post in combat. He ended up as a bombardier instructor in Saskatchewan for the duration, and helped train many Commonwealth pilots, bombardiers and flight crews.

"From each according to his ability..." - contributions come in many forms.

[Gliderjohn]

I have probably posted this before on some previous related thread but...One of the older glider pilots in our club who died about 10 years ago from cancer was the Captain in command of a B-24 at age 23, completed 35 missions in Europe and then completed another full tour flying C-47s (DC-3s) over the "Hump". After the war he was one of the primary test pilots developing the B-47 bomber. A great guy whom I always listened to with big ears when he was discussing flying techniques, etc. Never heard of him ever having an accident of any sort during his 60+ years of flying. Yep, they had big ones and knew what to do with them.
GliderJohn

[oldbike54]

 John , we still have some of those guys with "big ones" , one of of these days I will introduce you to
"our" man with the huevos .

  Dusty

[Gliderjohn]

Quote:

John , we still have some of those guys with "big ones" , one of of these days I will introduce you to
"our" man with the huevos .

  Dusty

Looking forward to it.
GliderJohn

[leafman60]

I'm an amateur history buff and read a lot about such things.

New Zealanders and Australians have played a valiant role in more than one world war conflict.

I always think about the terrible disaster of a military operation conjured up by none other than Winston Churchill, a great man, during World War I in Turkey - Gallipoli. It was an invasion of the Turkish peninsula that went badly wrong and resulted in 46,000 allied soldiers dead.  Casualties on both sides totalled 500,000.  How would that go over today with the instant media and political commentary that we have?

Many New Zealanders and Aussies were involved in that operation and died gallantly.

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/battle-of-gallipoli

[Demar]

They were all courageous men, we owe them and I'm grateful for what they sacrificed. I knew my father-in-law was in WWII but I didn't know any details until one afternoon in 2003. We were on a family vacation in Palm Springs and he, my brother-in-law and I decided to visit the Palm Springs Air Museum. They had a bunch of chairs set up and we sat down to listen to a group of vets give a talk about their experiences fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. After about an hour they asked if any in the audience fought in the battle and a number of men raised their hands, including my father-in-law George. They were asked to say something they remembered about the battle and as George was a man of few words all he said was "It was a hell of a cold winter." Those of you that know about the battle know that the winter of 1944/45 was one of the coldest Europe has seen in the last 100 years. George got there in early January after the major fighting was over and was a member of George S. Patton's Third Army. My mother-in-law said he walked with the army all the way to Czechoslovakia. She also said they were asked once while vacationing in Paris if they had ever been to Paris before that trip and she answered "yes, my husband George had." When asked how he got to Paris he answered "in a boxcar in 1945." We lost George in 2005.