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- Jun 27, 2017
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Decades ago my co-worker Bruce C. observed that the best history came from eyewitnesses.
Years after that I mentioned to him that I read a story about how the Japanese WWII surrender ceremonies were disrupted when the Canadien representative signed on the wrong line.
His reply" You know I witnessed the surrender ceremony that day." What??
Bruce was a world class "story teller". But he also was a 24 year old Lieutenant on the destroyer USS Brunson doing kamikaze lookout duty off the coast of Okinawa and had visited Tokyo right after the war ended. Well, he had witnessed the surrender: not looking over MacArthur's shoulder, but on the deck of the Brunson several thousand yards off the port side of the USS Missouri.
In another thread I noted the death of the last IJN pilot who participated in the Pearl Harbor raid. It was the only time he flew off an aircraft carrier and, until the mission briefing, had no idea what country he would be attacking.
Now we have an Irishman- John (Paddy) Hemingway who passed away in a Dublin nursing home on March 17th at age 105. He was the last surviving (out of about 3,000) Royal Air Force pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain as one of Churchill's "so few". He was shot down four times. He also flew as an Allied Air Coordinator over Normandy Beach on D-Day.
So, another part of history is no longer within living memory.
Years after that I mentioned to him that I read a story about how the Japanese WWII surrender ceremonies were disrupted when the Canadien representative signed on the wrong line.
His reply" You know I witnessed the surrender ceremony that day." What??
Bruce was a world class "story teller". But he also was a 24 year old Lieutenant on the destroyer USS Brunson doing kamikaze lookout duty off the coast of Okinawa and had visited Tokyo right after the war ended. Well, he had witnessed the surrender: not looking over MacArthur's shoulder, but on the deck of the Brunson several thousand yards off the port side of the USS Missouri.
In another thread I noted the death of the last IJN pilot who participated in the Pearl Harbor raid. It was the only time he flew off an aircraft carrier and, until the mission briefing, had no idea what country he would be attacking.
Now we have an Irishman- John (Paddy) Hemingway who passed away in a Dublin nursing home on March 17th at age 105. He was the last surviving (out of about 3,000) Royal Air Force pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain as one of Churchill's "so few". He was shot down four times. He also flew as an Allied Air Coordinator over Normandy Beach on D-Day.
So, another part of history is no longer within living memory.