B-17 #4 - Lattimer-gobo-KCJohnny-Redcoats58-voyager-munkey-TheFly-cdcox-headsnap

[cdcox]

Dear Mom and Dad:

I'm just back from our first bombing run. Our bombardier didn't make it back. I never even found out where he was from. I asked him one day and he just said, "The outskirts of town." The only other notable thing about him was he had these big yellow teeth. I used to hate to look at them, but I feek kinda bad about it now since he got hit in the face and probably doesn't have any teeth anymore.

I'm okay. Most of the action was on the other side of the plane, so I didn't even get to fire my weapon. Captain said it was cause they heard what a dead eye I am. He's a good egg, even if he does talk a little funny, coming from Louisiana and all. One thing I'll say, riding in Red, White and Blew by You is way different than driving the tractor back in Kansas.

Even though we lost a guy, I feel like we got off easy compared to Tequila Rose (that's another plane) that had their mission earlier in the day. They pulled two dead people off that plane, and 4 more that were hit. One of those died later in the hopital. Even the pilot was hit, but he landed the plane through it all. I'll tell you that after I saw the medics pulling all those bloody people off the plane, I was having real second thoghts about going up there myself. With a mission under my belt, I'm feeling a little better about it.

You know when I came over here, I felt kinda funny about fighting against the Germans, seeing how Grandma and Grandpa came over when they were kids. But now, after seeing what happened to Slayer and the TR crew, I know that I'm doing the right thing.

Have pastor say a prayer for me and the other boys over here. We are gonna need it. Say hi, to Otilia, Esther, Dorothy, Verna, Mildrid, Mary Ann, Robert, Jr., Harold, Bill, and Lindel for me. Don't worry too much.

Love,

cdcox