nddons
Touchdown! Greaser!
On Saturday the CAF WI Wing held our spring banquet, and our guest speaker was a wonderful 89-year old WWII veteran, B-24 radio operator and top turret gunner by the name of George Michel. The man still fit in his uniform!
George spoke for probably an hour and a half about joining the Army Air Force at 17, training, his missions, crash landing 200 meters into Switzerland on his 10th mission, and his escape from Switzerland. Apparently the Swiss were very, very ****ed because American bombers "accidentally" bombed a ball bearing factory, from which ball bearings were being shipped to Germany.
Here is part of his story about his escape from Switzerland. http://b24.net/stories/michel.htm
George still knew morse code, and even had a B-24 morse code machine hooked up to a battery. When he showed it to my wife, he had her put the WWII headset on, and typed out a sentence at 20 wpm. When she asked what he said, George said that he said "you are a pretty girl."
Speaking of my bride, I'm proud to say that she made and decorated the cake for the 70 attendees, and did a pretty damed good freehand of a B-24.
Here are a few pictures.
George spoke for probably an hour and a half about joining the Army Air Force at 17, training, his missions, crash landing 200 meters into Switzerland on his 10th mission, and his escape from Switzerland. Apparently the Swiss were very, very ****ed because American bombers "accidentally" bombed a ball bearing factory, from which ball bearings were being shipped to Germany.
Here is part of his story about his escape from Switzerland. http://b24.net/stories/michel.htm
George still knew morse code, and even had a B-24 morse code machine hooked up to a battery. When he showed it to my wife, he had her put the WWII headset on, and typed out a sentence at 20 wpm. When she asked what he said, George said that he said "you are a pretty girl."
Speaking of my bride, I'm proud to say that she made and decorated the cake for the 70 attendees, and did a pretty damed good freehand of a B-24.
Here are a few pictures.
