35 years later....

[Dennis in MA]

US Customs is a pile of D-words every time. EVERY time. LOL.

I was headed out of Toronto (no Micks in tow) after seeing the Sox at Opening Day and the next. Customs/Immigration is at the airport in Toronto. "How long were you in Canada?" "Let's see (look at my watch), Forty-seven hours." Teh guy just looks at me. LOOKS AT ME. "I was at Opening Day. Red Sox? See the hat?" Still the stare. "We lost opening day. Came back the last night and killed em." "Welcome back to the States, sir."

Hit border patrol in Niagara Falls 3 years ago this week. That was a cool trip otherwise. "Everyone needs to take off their sunglasses and give me their ID's, now!" Dude. Yeah. I'm smuggling 9yo boys into Niagara Falls. Lighten up. Sheesh. Although the way back we just got waved through. Seems the US Customs had that one ass-backwards.

 

[cathouse01]

Military history of Italy during World War I - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Mind you, I didn't even realize they started out opposed to the Allies.


My best man's father was a radio operator on a B-24 in the 15th AF
(744th Bomb Squadron (Heavy) ``Deliverators'').
Plaque in the Dayton museum's memorial park:

If you visit, there's a 15th AF memorial bench outside hard by the (exit).

It is a small world. Just before he passed, my older brother took my dad to an air show where the Collings Foundation had their B24 on display. They were only letting people walk through the fuselage, but my brother went up to one of the guys and asked if it might be possible to see the cockpit and bombardier’s station. The guy politely said that they didn’t allow folks up front for security and liability reasons. My brother said that that was too bad since my dad had been a bombardier on B24s during the war. With that the guy yelled out to his buddies “We got one!!” and the entire team gathered around my dad and escorted up to his old station in the nose of the airplane. They sat him down there and proceeded to listen to him tell a few of his old war stories for a good 45 minutes (some of which my brother hadn’t ever heard). Still wish I could have been there.

 

[AHM]

... the entire team gathered around my dad and escorted up to his old station in the nose of the airplane.

Well done.

I've got the feeling that if my father had to haunt something,
it would be a B-314 Flying Boat. (Not that any survive intact).
And there must be more than a few sailors that would pick (one of) their ships.
Maybe my father-in-law would have picked his General Quarters station
on his WWII destroyer escort (Aft Steering); maybe not.

I can't swear that my friend's father would necessarily pick his position
on his B-24 as the place to dwell. But walking around the museum in Dayton,
I think there's lot of such grist for veterans.

 

[Broc]

April 18th 1986 I stepped onto a plane in Dublin Ireland with a return ticket I was fairly certain I would not use. Today I’m 35 years in America. Apparently I did not use that ticket!

Time really does fly.

3 months and 11 days later I was born.

To clarify Quiller is not my dad or mom. Lol.

 

[quinnjalan]

Ha, thanks for clarifying. Don't what any more mini me's showing up!!