An excellent tribute to a real hero, one who did a job that he thought was wasteful and dumb (he was right about war). I never met Bud Anderson but I did have a chat with Col. Dick Cole, the last Doolittle Tokyo Raider a couple of years before he died. The Bride's former father-in-law was an ordnance officer on the Hornet and supervised …
An excellent tribute to a real hero, one who did a job that he thought was wasteful and dumb (he was right about war). I never met Bud Anderson but I did have a chat with Col. Dick Cole, the last Doolittle Tokyo Raider a couple of years before he died. The Bride's former father-in-law was an ordnance officer on the Hornet and supervised loading the bombs for the April 1942 raid on Japan. He had previously served in the Lexington, so managed to have two carriers shot out from under him. Col. Cole was most gracious and signed a profile painting of the B-25B he and Doolittle flew, which we then gave to the Bride's ex, the son of the Hornet ordnance officer, William Hood. I have found in talking with the few WW2 veterans I have met that most are somewhat quiet, not boastful, and some have expressed what Bud Anderson said. Bud's passing marks the end of an era, one we shall not see again -
"High Flight"
By John Gillespie Magee Jr.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
I saw that only once when traveling - in New York, it was the "Star-Spangled Banner" and a flag. In Detroit the year I worked for "Uncle" Jerry Campbell, it was the "Star-Spangled Banner" and then "Oh Canada".....
The guy who wrote that was a young American who joined the RCAF before the US was in the war, and died in a mid-air during training in England. He wrote that after his first flight in a Spitfire, and it was found in his belongings that were sent home. The family had the poem published and it "caught on" as they say.
There’s so much we don’t know Tom, I well educated and I’m astounded by how much I don’t know, at 77 I’m more of a sponge for knowledge now than I have ever been. Thanks for the back story. I’m not a pilot, I grew up in a family of them, which is probably why I was a ground pounder who jumped out of airplanes. That young man was a visionary lost to us way too soon, I totally get why his family published it, can you imagine what it was like for them while going through his personal belongings to find that in the midst of their grief. It must have been like he was reaching from the other side to give them comfort. 🙏
An excellent tribute to a real hero, one who did a job that he thought was wasteful and dumb (he was right about war). I never met Bud Anderson but I did have a chat with Col. Dick Cole, the last Doolittle Tokyo Raider a couple of years before he died. The Bride's former father-in-law was an ordnance officer on the Hornet and supervised loading the bombs for the April 1942 raid on Japan. He had previously served in the Lexington, so managed to have two carriers shot out from under him. Col. Cole was most gracious and signed a profile painting of the B-25B he and Doolittle flew, which we then gave to the Bride's ex, the son of the Hornet ordnance officer, William Hood. I have found in talking with the few WW2 veterans I have met that most are somewhat quiet, not boastful, and some have expressed what Bud Anderson said. Bud's passing marks the end of an era, one we shall not see again -
"High Flight"
By John Gillespie Magee Jr.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Remember when TV stations signed off for the night with this poem set to video of an F-104 flying through the clouds?
I saw that only once when traveling - in New York, it was the "Star-Spangled Banner" and a flag. In Detroit the year I worked for "Uncle" Jerry Campbell, it was the "Star-Spangled Banner" and then "Oh Canada".....
Maybe it was just Sacramento since there were two air force bases there.
Thank you for that Bruce, that’s beautiful 🙏
The guy who wrote that was a young American who joined the RCAF before the US was in the war, and died in a mid-air during training in England. He wrote that after his first flight in a Spitfire, and it was found in his belongings that were sent home. The family had the poem published and it "caught on" as they say.
There’s so much we don’t know Tom, I well educated and I’m astounded by how much I don’t know, at 77 I’m more of a sponge for knowledge now than I have ever been. Thanks for the back story. I’m not a pilot, I grew up in a family of them, which is probably why I was a ground pounder who jumped out of airplanes. That young man was a visionary lost to us way too soon, I totally get why his family published it, can you imagine what it was like for them while going through his personal belongings to find that in the midst of their grief. It must have been like he was reaching from the other side to give them comfort. 🙏