I talked to a hero yesterday.

[w8liftinglady]

I meet a lot of interesting people as a nurse,but this man was by far the most interesting.His body was frail from cancer and age,but his mind was sharp as a tack.I was giving him a bowel prep before his colonoscopy,and he needed me to stay with him.So,I sat in the chair,while he sat on the pot...and he shared this...
he was a gunnery soldier in WW2.He flew 45 missions before being shot down and captured by the Germans.He and 11 other guys stayed in a 10X10 room with 6 cots,a rusty pot and a bucket of water and a ladle.he told me about his survival skills,and how it felt to be liberated.
Seeing as how we had become intimately acquianted,I told him about my son,and asked him if he,as an old sarge,understood the mission in Iraq.He told me"Their leader is a goddamned fool",gave me a conspiratorial grin,and I cleaned him up.I love that guy.

[Dhalgren]

1. Thanks, lady, for sharing this. I have a hero now, and she lifts weights...

:loveya: :blush: :hi:

[madokie]

2. talk about putting tears in my eyes

I love my visits to the doctor, not so much for seeing the doc's sake but for the older vets who I get to talk to and hear what they have to say about the little one*. Most I've talked to, of which would number in the hundreds, have an opinion of bush/cheney* not unlike my own.

[Wcross]

3. Those guys in the 8th airforce had balls.

Many of the raids into Germany were unescorted by fighters. On a couple of raids they lost over 100 aircraft when means they lost the crews too. 1000 guys killed or captured not to mention those that died on aircraft that managed to return to England. They would do that and then get up and do it again the next day.
My great aunt was a nurse stationed in England during the war. She fell for a pilot and there was talk of marriage, his name was Joe. He left one morning and never returned. She recently passed away and her sister found an engagement ring and her diary from the war. It broke her heart and she wasn't sure if he had been captured or killed. She never married and went to work at the V.A. hospitals after the war. She was a great woman who continued to serve the wounded after the war. I miss her a lot.

On edit;
She died in 2005 but was definetly anti-bush. She always refered to him as "that bastard".

[w8liftinglady]

4. Thanks for your nice imput.

it's important to always honor their valor.