The Cold Blue (2018)

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LEWIS PULLER:
Whenever this war is over,

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the victory will have been won
by you,

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with the uniform you wear,
the chevrons on your sleeves,

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and the instincts in your gut,
and the blood on your boots.

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We will sail
across God's vast ocean,

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where we will meet our enemy
and make the difference

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between freedom of the world
and its enslavement.

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JOSEPH LIEBGOTT: You fought
bravely for your country.

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You found in one another a bond

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that exists only in combat.

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Every man that's wounded,
every man I lose,

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I have to believe
that it's all worthwhile

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because our cause is just.

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( roar of airplanes
approaching )

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Man:
Well, I don't know.
The odds were all against you.

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It was more or less
like being in death row
in a penitentiary,

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waiting on your turn,
and you knew it was coming.

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Man 2:
You fly a real tough mission,

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and you're so glad to get back,
and everybody says,

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"Boy, we made it
through that one, didn't we?"

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And the next morning
they'd come in,

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put the flashlight
in your face--

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"All right, boys, get up.
You're gonna be leavin'.

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We're gonna be flyin'
in two hours."

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Now, that's...
that's tough.

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Man 3:
I was 21 years old, yeah,

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and we felt like
we could live forever.

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Don't get me wrong.

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We'd still get
that tight feeling...

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...when we would would see
bursting flak nearby,

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when we'd see fighters--

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we still got that feeling,
but...

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( anti-aircraft shells
exploding )

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...you can't make a living
that way.

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All you could do
is make a dying.

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Man 4:
Anybody said
they weren't afraid,

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they were full of crap.

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'Cause you were always afraid
what was gonna happen next,

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particularly in flak,
you're just waiting

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for something to go off
around you.

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And that's when the fighters
would come up.

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Man:
One of the men
in our crew kept saying,

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"I know I'm not gonna make it,"
et cetera, et cetera.

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And you don't like
to hear that.

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And he was very concerned
because his wife

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was expecting
within a day or two.

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And, uh, the next day,
they had him flying,

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which they shouldn't have had,
and...

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they took so many men
from our crew to fly with him,

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and they never made it back.

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They crashed into the Channel.

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And, incidentally--
and this isn't storytelling--

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but he, he, uh...

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...he was killed
the day his son was born.

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John Ketzner:
The war came,

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and we went and did
what they told us to do.

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That's the only thing I know.

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The Japanese ruined my youth,

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because I was 20 years old
or 19 years old

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and everything was wonderful,

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and the Japanese,
in one fell swoop,

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ended all that.

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And it lasted four years.

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Al Villagran:
Well, I can see why they get
young fellas to fly to war,

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or ground or submarines
and so forth.

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When you're younger,
you feel you can do anything.

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I think when you get older,
you get smarter.

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VG Alexander:
There was a 19-year-old
navigator,

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Jewish kid, sharp as a tack.

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And I had some older boys,

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my bombardier was 26 years old.

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I was 22, 23.

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William Toombs:
Oldest man we had in our crew

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was a Pennsylvania Dutchman,
32 years old.

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We called him "Pappy."

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Thirty-two years old!

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Our navigator was 26,

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and everybody else
was anywhere from 22, 23.

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I can look back now
and see why...

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young people are in a war--
not older people.

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Old people got better sense.

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Paul Haedike:
Sometimes they say that
the older you get,

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the more wiser you get.

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There weren't too many,
I don't think,

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too much younger than me.

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I flew every one
of my missions at 19.

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The old man on our crew
was our waist gunner.

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He was 25.

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John Doyle:
I'll tell ya, when we got into
this thing, you wanted to fly.

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You know, you had a great time
training and all that.

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But when you get over there,
and you got shot at
the first time,

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you knew you were
in deep doo-doo.

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( chuckles ) And you really
took life seriously after that.

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Robert Rowland:
They said we was gonna fly
30 missions.

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They started out at 25,
and then they changed it to 30
when we got there.

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Then we got 26 missions in,
and they give us a week off,

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then we come back
and they says,

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"You're gonna fly 35."

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And that was kind of a shock.

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Glenn Harrison:
It seemed like I was flying
all the time.

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There were 40 bomb groups,
and our bomb group
had a lot of people.

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I don't know the logistics
of keepin' the fuel

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and the ammunition,
loading the bombs at night,

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getting 'em ready
for the next day.

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I don't know how they did it.

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Morton Kimmel:
When you're in a position
like that,

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there's no tomorrow.

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You do everything that you
want to do, that you  can  do,

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when you feel like doing it,
and do it then,

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because you may not get
the chance to do it again.

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Ketzner:
Wouldn't be unusual,
they'd wake you up,

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the first thing you'd do
would be

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go to the mess hall to eat.

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The mess hall was all lit up

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and everybody was laughing
and talking,

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and usually,
they had Berlin Lynn,

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or whatever her name was,
on the radio, broadcasting.

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We hadn't been briefed yet,

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we didn't know where
we was gonna go,

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but this lady in Berlin
knew where we were gonna go.

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And she says, "Boys,
you've got a tough one today.

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You're going to
so-and-so and so-and-so,

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and we'll be waitin' on ya."
And so...

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that they knew more
than we did.

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Villagran:
Now, in the Air Force,

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when we went to the kitchen
for breakfast,

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and we were getting, say, eggs,
we'd get powdered eggs.

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That's what they had.

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Once in a while,
we would get fresh eggs.

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You could get two over easy,

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and this was a treat.

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But we knew after a while
that when you got fresh eggs,

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it meant you were gonna have
a real tough mission,

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so they gave you fresh eggs.

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That's the story.

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We don't want fresh eggs,
but we want fresh eggs.

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Doyle:
When you go in to get ready
for a flight,

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you'd go into the locker room,
and you wore long johns,

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and then you'd wear
the heated suit, put that on.

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And we had gloves
that were attached to those.

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You had to get your gloves
into those.

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They came clear around
your ankles, too.

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And then you had
your flight suits.

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Those were the things
that you just wore.

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Ketzner:
Then you'd load back on a truck

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and they'd take you to the area

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where the debriefing rooms
were,

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so all the crews
and everything

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would be sitting there,
waiting,

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and they had a sheet
over the wall.

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They'd pull the sheet back
and say,

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"Our target today is Germany.

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The weather looks pretty good
as near as we can tell."

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Ketzner:
One thing always got me
about these briefings.

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The Catholic chaplain,

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he was back in the corner
hearing confessions...

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...and giving out communions.

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So you knew that you
was goin' someplace

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that you might not
come back from.

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( plane engines
starting )

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Ketzner:
That was one of the most
amazing things of the war,

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the choreographing of
putting 1100 airplanes
together in formation at war.

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Toombs:
We'd all line up
on the perimeter strip

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that come around to
the end of the runway.

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And the lead ship
would taxi around and line up,

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and when they fired the flare
to take off,

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that lead ship
went down the runway.

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Next man pulled right up
behind him.

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Thirty seconds, he moved.

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Thirty seconds,
the third man moved.

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Every 30 seconds a plane
was goin' down that runway.

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That lead plane
never got off the ground

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before that second plane
was already running.

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Harrison:
Well, we'd just spin out there
on the end of the runway

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and give it full throttle,

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and you had to have
enough speed for it

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to lift all that load up.

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You had a full gas load,

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you had all your ammunition
for the guns,

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and you had the bombload.

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Villagran:
'Course, while you're up there,

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I could see the sun comin' up
around the Earth,

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and I thought that
was the most weird thing,

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to see the sun comin' up
and it's dark on Earth,
you're knowing.

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But you realized what was
happening to you,

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and the next thing you know,
why, the sun come up,

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and you see all these airplanes
circling,

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straining, so to speak,
to get up to the altitude

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with a heavy load of bombs.

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Rowland:
You had to form up,
and you had a circle

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you were supposed to fly
till you got formed up
with your group.

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And then there'd be
another bomb group over here.

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And one day we come within
three or four inches...

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( laughs ) ...of flakin' up
another bomb group.

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Alexander:
Well, on some of 'em,

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when the young pilots'd come in
as replacements,

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if I was first man to take off,
we'd be up in the air,

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say, two or three hundred feet,
climbing,

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all of a sudden, boom!

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Doyle:
You'd see a bright flash,

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a red flash,
and stuff coming down,

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you knew darn well
it was a midair collision.

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And those were scary times,
as far as getting up.

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Haedike:
Two B-17s, one came down
right on top of the other.

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They all went to their death.

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That's when I started smokin',
by the way.

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Kimmel:
Well, actually,
I believe that our officers

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were closer to the crew

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than they were
with other officers.

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00:24:16,458 --> 00:24:19,834
As a crew, most crews
stuck pretty well together.

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We did a lot together.

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I don't think
we would have appreciated

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00:24:29,166 --> 00:24:31,458
one new man joining us.

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00:24:31,542 --> 00:24:34,709
We knew what each man
was capable of doing.

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00:24:34,792 --> 00:24:38,875
Each man did his job good,
and no one complained.

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00:24:42,792 --> 00:24:47,583
Haedike:
We were family in the air--
you absolutely had to be.

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00:24:47,667 --> 00:24:49,417
We all had our duties.

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Villagran:
We just wanted
to stay together.

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00:24:54,125 --> 00:24:59,000
And we flew 25 missions
as a crew, all of us together.

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Haedike:
You're a family...

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exactly--
you have to be.

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However,
I can remember one mission

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when our flight engineer
came out smashed.

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And I climbed all over him.

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00:25:17,875 --> 00:25:20,083
I said,
"What is wrong with you?"

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We depended on one another.

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00:25:25,917 --> 00:25:28,000
Kimmel:
There was a lot
of spit and polish

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with the officers,
and that didn't happen.

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00:25:31,917 --> 00:25:35,125
Like you say,
we're a family of brothers...

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...and we didn't have time
for all that stuff.

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But there was no saluting
and...

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and "Yes sir, no sir"
and all that.

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00:25:49,750 --> 00:25:52,625
Each guy was his own guy.

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00:25:54,834 --> 00:25:59,375
Alexander:
Well, of course,
each man would do his job

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00:25:59,458 --> 00:26:03,375
and we all knew exactly
who was gonna do what,

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00:26:03,458 --> 00:26:04,667
so to speak.

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So I knew I had a good crew.

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00:26:11,792 --> 00:26:14,834
And we just
got along beautifully.

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00:26:55,667 --> 00:26:57,750
Toombs:
We had a crew chief
that took care of that plane

240
00:26:57,834 --> 00:27:00,333
after we got it back
off a mission.

241
00:27:00,417 --> 00:27:03,792
So the three of us
walked that plane,

242
00:27:03,875 --> 00:27:06,166
looked at everything
on the ground,

243
00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:08,667
ask him all the questions
we could think of.

244
00:27:08,750 --> 00:27:10,917
If there was any little thing

245
00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:14,625
that we thought we should
pay particular attention to,

246
00:27:14,709 --> 00:27:16,667
for him to tell us.

247
00:27:31,333 --> 00:27:34,083
Haedike:
You never flew
the same plane all the time.

248
00:27:34,166 --> 00:27:37,291
It's just like your car
havin' an ouchie

249
00:27:37,375 --> 00:27:40,875
and you take it in
to Firestone or somewhere
to get fixed.

250
00:27:40,959 --> 00:27:43,792
They'd work overnight,
all night long,

251
00:27:43,875 --> 00:27:45,834
trying to patch planes.

252
00:27:53,959 --> 00:27:55,625
Doyle:
As soon as you got in,

253
00:27:55,709 --> 00:27:58,208
they would take care
of any damage,

254
00:27:58,291 --> 00:28:01,417
they would get in the plane
and check the engines out,

255
00:28:01,500 --> 00:28:03,375
start 'em up and check 'em out.

256
00:28:03,458 --> 00:28:05,583
And they would
clean up everything.

257
00:28:12,500 --> 00:28:13,917
Kimmel:
Tremendous workers.

258
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:15,625
They were so good.

259
00:28:15,709 --> 00:28:18,709
We came back in B-17s
with two engines,

260
00:28:18,792 --> 00:28:22,750
with the tail fin shot up
and busted away...

261
00:28:24,250 --> 00:28:26,917
...with all kinds of holes
in the plane,

262
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:31,667
and in two days, that plane
was flying missions again.

263
00:28:47,125 --> 00:28:49,083
Toombs:
We had armor on our crew.

264
00:28:49,166 --> 00:28:52,709
And he'd be there when they--
most cases, not all cases--

265
00:28:52,792 --> 00:28:56,834
sometimes a plane'd be loaded
before we ever got there.

266
00:29:03,291 --> 00:29:06,000
Doyle:
The armor gunners
took care of all that.

267
00:29:06,083 --> 00:29:10,917
They'd bring 'em out
on big carriers, and...

268
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:13,458
it was a dangerous job.

269
00:29:26,583 --> 00:29:30,542
Haedike:
We did not load the bombs, no,
but we did come out and check.

270
00:29:53,709 --> 00:29:55,542
Doyle:
They were all fused,

271
00:29:55,625 --> 00:29:59,750
and they had fusing wires
stuck to the propeller.

272
00:30:04,709 --> 00:30:08,458
These fusing wires
were hooked on the shackles

273
00:30:08,542 --> 00:30:10,792
that the bombs are hung on,

274
00:30:10,875 --> 00:30:14,041
and when they left the plane,
they would pull the wire out.

275
00:30:17,709 --> 00:30:20,375
Haedike:
Now the bomb is alive.

276
00:30:22,041 --> 00:30:24,500
If you've seen movies
and you hear bombs...

277
00:30:24,583 --> 00:30:29,375
( whistles ) ...goin' down,
that's this fuse spinning out.

278
00:30:33,709 --> 00:30:36,125
Now the bomb is live,
and once it hit,

279
00:30:36,208 --> 00:30:37,750
of course,
it detonates.

280
00:30:41,083 --> 00:30:45,083
We had two missions
where I had to go back
in the bomb bay

281
00:30:45,166 --> 00:30:47,250
and put the cotter pins
back in.

282
00:30:47,333 --> 00:30:50,000
And that is a little hairy.

283
00:30:50,083 --> 00:30:52,083
Why? 'Cause when you landed,

284
00:30:52,166 --> 00:30:54,750
if you didn't,
the bombs were armed,

285
00:30:54,834 --> 00:30:57,750
and if you had trouble,
of course, you'd detonate.

286
00:32:27,750 --> 00:32:31,041
Villagran:
Well, we talked about
just about everything.

287
00:32:31,125 --> 00:32:35,709
Our families, et cetera.
It didn't matter what it was.

288
00:32:35,792 --> 00:32:39,542
We kept pretty much of
a running conversation
between everybody.

289
00:32:39,625 --> 00:32:41,834
It made the mission
go a little easier.

290
00:32:50,041 --> 00:32:51,500
Ketzner:
First thing you did,

291
00:32:51,583 --> 00:32:53,834
soon as we cleared
the coast of England,

292
00:32:53,917 --> 00:32:56,291
everybody would test
their guns.

293
00:33:15,834 --> 00:33:19,542
Toombs:
Well, of course,
I can only speak for myself,

294
00:33:19,625 --> 00:33:23,250
but when you're in
hostile territory,

295
00:33:23,333 --> 00:33:25,625
and I was in a top turret,

296
00:33:25,709 --> 00:33:29,500
so all of my vision was 360--

297
00:33:29,583 --> 00:33:31,709
90 degrees this way, ya know.

298
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:45,542
Harrison:
Contrails would form
at the tail of the ship.

299
00:33:47,875 --> 00:33:51,375
The moisture in the air
and the ship flying through it

300
00:33:51,458 --> 00:33:53,750
made the contrails.

301
00:33:55,333 --> 00:33:58,333
And a lot times
we wouldn't have 'em,

302
00:33:58,417 --> 00:34:02,291
because it depended on
the amount of moisture
in the air.

303
00:34:42,208 --> 00:34:44,792
Toombs:
Couldn't see
a prettier sight than that.

304
00:34:46,542 --> 00:34:49,500
Kind of spell-bound,
ya know, spell-bound.

305
00:34:51,291 --> 00:34:53,041
A beautiful sight.

306
00:34:58,083 --> 00:35:01,041
Ketzner:
If you're watching
on the ground over in Germany,

307
00:35:01,125 --> 00:35:04,959
they tell me,
it took about 30 minutes
for 'em all to come over.

308
00:35:07,792 --> 00:35:10,041
Haedike:
They said on a clear day

309
00:35:10,125 --> 00:35:13,917
that the Germans could see us
coming 50 miles out

310
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:16,291
from the contrails.

311
00:35:19,333 --> 00:35:21,333
And unfortunately,
when that happened,

312
00:35:21,417 --> 00:35:24,875
that wasn't too good,
because they were ready for us.

313
00:36:12,917 --> 00:36:17,041
Kimmel:
In 1938, I was down in Chile,

314
00:36:17,125 --> 00:36:19,542
and they threw a good will tour
down there.

315
00:36:19,625 --> 00:36:21,959
I remember going out
with my father

316
00:36:22,041 --> 00:36:23,417
and seeing these big planes.

317
00:36:27,583 --> 00:36:31,458
And I said to my father,
"Someday I'm gonna fly
in one of those."

318
00:36:31,542 --> 00:36:34,875
Little did I know.

319
00:36:44,083 --> 00:36:48,500
Toombs:
The B-17 was not only
a beautiful ship,

320
00:36:48,583 --> 00:36:49,834
but it flew like a dream,

321
00:36:49,917 --> 00:36:53,917
it flew like
an overgrown Piper Cub.

322
00:36:56,875 --> 00:36:59,417
It flew nice and smooth.
Beautiful.

323
00:36:59,500 --> 00:37:01,917
Took a lot of punishment.

324
00:37:04,333 --> 00:37:06,667
Kimmel:
The greatest airplane
ever built,

325
00:37:06,750 --> 00:37:08,709
as far as I'm concerned.

326
00:37:08,792 --> 00:37:11,166
It brought us back 35 times.

327
00:37:11,250 --> 00:37:15,709
Sometimes in condition
that you would never even think

328
00:37:15,792 --> 00:37:17,750
of trying to fly an airplane,

329
00:37:17,834 --> 00:37:20,166
any other airplane,

330
00:37:20,250 --> 00:37:24,458
that plane came back,
and that plane brought us back.

331
00:37:26,500 --> 00:37:28,792
It was a marriage,
I'll tell ya.

332
00:37:40,834 --> 00:37:44,709
Haedike:
A lot of guys, they'd name
their own planes.

333
00:37:44,792 --> 00:37:47,000
And they had
all kinds of kooky names.

334
00:37:52,875 --> 00:37:55,000
Kimmel:
The original crews

335
00:37:55,083 --> 00:37:56,583
had a lot of good painters

336
00:37:56,667 --> 00:38:00,250
and they had a of planes
that were decorated

337
00:38:00,333 --> 00:38:03,375
and had logos on 'em
and so on.

338
00:38:12,667 --> 00:38:16,959
Haedike:
Vargas girls, like Petty girl--
Petty girls, Vargas girls,

339
00:38:17,041 --> 00:38:18,333
sexy girls--

340
00:38:18,417 --> 00:38:20,709
there weren't too many
serious things.

341
00:38:20,792 --> 00:38:23,166
I think to keep guys loose.

342
00:39:08,917 --> 00:39:10,625
Villagran:
Well...

343
00:39:10,709 --> 00:39:14,291
...on a warm day
it would be 20 below.

344
00:39:14,375 --> 00:39:17,083
But sometimes it got 60 below.

345
00:39:17,166 --> 00:39:20,458
And oftentimes
I had to take my oxygen mask

346
00:39:20,542 --> 00:39:22,542
and crack the ice out of it

347
00:39:22,625 --> 00:39:26,375
and check if it would
freeze into the tube.

348
00:39:26,458 --> 00:39:28,500
That was one of the worst parts
of the mission,

349
00:39:28,583 --> 00:39:30,792
was the cold air.

350
00:39:30,875 --> 00:39:32,417
The only time
you didn't feel it

351
00:39:32,500 --> 00:39:34,500
is when you were
fightin' fighters

352
00:39:34,583 --> 00:39:37,709
or goin' over the target.

353
00:39:42,208 --> 00:39:45,542
Toombs:
Oh, at 30,000 feet the--

354
00:39:45,625 --> 00:39:50,166
I think the temperature drops
two degrees every thousand.

355
00:39:52,208 --> 00:39:56,458
It'd be about 40 below
at that altitude.

356
00:39:56,542 --> 00:40:02,375
In the cockpit,
a little bit of heat came off
the number three engine,

357
00:40:02,458 --> 00:40:08,208
it came into the cockpit
where the pilot and I sat.

358
00:40:08,291 --> 00:40:11,875
And there's enough
to kind of keep your feet warm

359
00:40:11,959 --> 00:40:13,959
and your hands.

360
00:40:21,500 --> 00:40:24,709
Toombs:
Our ball turret gunner
had a gun problem,

361
00:40:24,792 --> 00:40:28,792
his gun jammed,
and he took his gloves off
to work on it,

362
00:40:28,875 --> 00:40:31,250
and both his hands
got frostbitten

363
00:40:31,333 --> 00:40:34,709
and he didn't fly with us
for a month until
his hands healed up.

364
00:40:41,875 --> 00:40:45,583
Kimmel:
Well, it was so cold
on one mission

365
00:40:45,667 --> 00:40:50,792
our copilot suffered
an anoxia situation
where he passed out,

366
00:40:50,875 --> 00:40:55,083
and his hand froze
to the plexiglass window,

367
00:40:55,166 --> 00:40:58,125
and then they had
to amputate the fingers
of his hand

368
00:40:58,208 --> 00:41:02,125
because it was so cold
that his hand, when he tried
to help himself,

369
00:41:02,208 --> 00:41:05,500
froze to the plexiglass window.

370
00:42:04,500 --> 00:42:08,125
Toombs:
Well, the British
treated us very nice,

371
00:42:08,208 --> 00:42:11,417
in some cases royally.

372
00:42:14,125 --> 00:42:15,875
They called it
"The Friendly Invasion"

373
00:42:15,959 --> 00:42:18,250
'cause we flat invaded
that country.

374
00:42:27,083 --> 00:42:29,208
England's a small country,
and we had it

375
00:42:29,291 --> 00:42:32,625
absolutely covered up
with American soldiers.

376
00:42:35,625 --> 00:42:38,542
And they tolerated us.

377
00:42:55,792 --> 00:42:57,291
Villagran:
I was single then,

378
00:42:57,375 --> 00:42:59,875
I could run around,
do whatever I wanted.

379
00:42:59,959 --> 00:43:01,750
But I didn't feel uncomfortable

380
00:43:01,834 --> 00:43:04,709
with the British people
at all...

381
00:43:04,792 --> 00:43:07,709
once I got to be able
to understand the language,

382
00:43:07,792 --> 00:43:10,500
because...
that English language

383
00:43:10,583 --> 00:43:12,792
is a little different
then ours.

384
00:43:14,667 --> 00:43:16,250
Alexander:
Very good people.

385
00:43:16,333 --> 00:43:19,542
As you know,
at the beginning of the war

386
00:43:19,625 --> 00:43:23,625
they weren't too enamored
by the Yanks comin' over.

387
00:43:23,709 --> 00:43:29,041
They said we were "overpaid,
oversexed, and over here."

388
00:43:29,125 --> 00:43:31,333
I remember that.

389
00:44:10,333 --> 00:44:15,417
Alexander:
Flak is German
88-millimeter cannon shells.

390
00:44:15,500 --> 00:44:19,625
Flak was responsible
for more planes being shot down

391
00:44:19,709 --> 00:44:21,875
than enemy fighters.

392
00:44:21,959 --> 00:44:25,041
And when you see a flak,
black puffs of smoke,

393
00:44:25,125 --> 00:44:28,542
that's after the shell,
of course, has exploded.

394
00:44:28,625 --> 00:44:31,500
And it explodes,
hypothetically,

395
00:44:31,583 --> 00:44:34,291
into 200 pieces...

396
00:44:34,375 --> 00:44:36,417
and it's powerful.

397
00:44:41,417 --> 00:44:43,750
Rowland:
You don't know where
the flak is coming from.

398
00:44:43,834 --> 00:44:47,083
You don't know
if the next burst
is gonna hit you or not.

399
00:44:47,166 --> 00:44:50,333
You never know where
the next one is gonna be

400
00:44:50,417 --> 00:44:53,250
in a case like that,
and that's what scares ya.

401
00:44:55,417 --> 00:44:57,583
Toombs:
It just looked like
a big thunderstorm,

402
00:44:57,667 --> 00:44:59,875
so to speak,
that's what it amounted to.

403
00:44:59,959 --> 00:45:02,250
But you had to keep on flyin'.

404
00:45:07,959 --> 00:45:11,625
Kimmel:
God was on your side
when you didn't get hit.

405
00:45:11,709 --> 00:45:13,875
The flak would vary so much.

406
00:45:13,959 --> 00:45:16,041
The Germans had
pretty good radar--

407
00:45:16,125 --> 00:45:19,750
they could judge your altitude,
your speed,

408
00:45:19,834 --> 00:45:22,125
and your direction.

409
00:45:28,709 --> 00:45:31,166
Harrison:
I think the worst
that I ever had--

410
00:45:31,250 --> 00:45:34,542
over Kassel, Germany,
I will never forget that one--

411
00:45:34,625 --> 00:45:36,750
it blew my windshield out

412
00:45:36,834 --> 00:45:40,792
and come into my face
at 160 miles an hour.

413
00:45:48,667 --> 00:45:51,291
Villagran:
You'd look at that flak
out there, and you'd swear

414
00:45:51,375 --> 00:45:54,250
you're not gonna
get through it...

415
00:45:54,333 --> 00:45:56,417
where the sky's almost black
with these things

416
00:45:56,500 --> 00:45:59,583
bustin' all over the place.

417
00:45:59,667 --> 00:46:03,333
It's amazing
we did make it through
as much as we did.

418
00:46:17,750 --> 00:46:19,375
Villagran:
Well, we had a dog,

419
00:46:19,458 --> 00:46:22,208
and it looked more like a pig
than a dog.

420
00:46:22,291 --> 00:46:25,041
But it was our mascot.

421
00:46:32,458 --> 00:46:36,000
We had a stove
in the middle of the barracks,

422
00:46:36,083 --> 00:46:38,959
and we used to make sandwiches
on it and so forth.

423
00:46:39,041 --> 00:46:42,875
If the dog was around,
we'd feed him whatever
we had left over.

424
00:46:44,542 --> 00:46:47,000
He hung around the barracks
until we got back.

425
00:46:47,083 --> 00:46:49,625
Don't know if
he had a name or not.

426
00:46:49,709 --> 00:46:51,959
He was a faithful little dog.

427
00:46:52,041 --> 00:46:55,250
But it had a real wide nose.

428
00:47:02,709 --> 00:47:05,250
Harrison:
Oh, you get superstitious.

429
00:47:05,333 --> 00:47:09,041
I remember I had to put on
a clean pair of socks

430
00:47:09,125 --> 00:47:11,333
the day I was shot down.

431
00:47:11,417 --> 00:47:15,875
I'd been wearing
the same pair of socks.

432
00:47:15,959 --> 00:47:20,125
Evidently, I think that the pup
got one of my socks

433
00:47:20,208 --> 00:47:22,834
and was chewing on it
and hid it,

434
00:47:22,917 --> 00:47:24,458
and I couldn't find it
that morning,

435
00:47:24,542 --> 00:47:27,417
I had to put on
a clean pair of socks.

436
00:47:27,500 --> 00:47:30,625
That might have been the reason
I was shot down.

437
00:47:32,417 --> 00:47:34,333
Kimmel:
You are to believe this or not,

438
00:47:34,417 --> 00:47:37,083
but somewheres around
the 10th or 12th mission,

439
00:47:37,166 --> 00:47:42,333
I got to a point, and I know
some of the other fellas
reached the same thing,

440
00:47:42,417 --> 00:47:44,750
that they were feeling blasé.

441
00:47:44,834 --> 00:47:46,792
"They didn't get us
up to here,

442
00:47:46,875 --> 00:47:49,542
they ain't gonna
get us hereon."

443
00:47:51,333 --> 00:47:54,291
Haedike:
I was somewhat superstitious.

444
00:47:54,375 --> 00:47:57,125
I always felt
God would bring me home--

445
00:47:57,208 --> 00:47:59,041
and I mean that sincerely--

446
00:47:59,125 --> 00:48:03,250
however, I wasn't sure
if it would be in one piece.

447
00:48:08,166 --> 00:48:10,917
I flew five days in a row.

448
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:12,542
Five missions.

449
00:48:12,625 --> 00:48:14,959
And I remember
by the fourth or fifth one,

450
00:48:15,041 --> 00:48:18,041
you really didn't care--
you were worn out.

451
00:48:18,125 --> 00:48:21,000
You wanted to get away from it.

452
00:48:21,083 --> 00:48:23,583
Toombs:
I saw a lot of 'em
break under pressure.

453
00:48:23,667 --> 00:48:28,208
Come back and told
the flight sergeant,
"I can't fly anymore."

454
00:48:28,291 --> 00:48:29,583
And they didn't.

455
00:48:29,667 --> 00:48:30,959
Nobody pointed
their finger at 'em

456
00:48:31,041 --> 00:48:32,625
and ridiculed 'em.

457
00:48:33,792 --> 00:48:35,458
Nobody.

458
00:49:15,208 --> 00:49:17,125
Kimmel:
Yes, the bomb run.

459
00:49:17,208 --> 00:49:18,750
That was the worst,

460
00:49:18,834 --> 00:49:21,792
'cause you had to
keep everything steady.

461
00:49:23,208 --> 00:49:24,625
If you weren't on a bomb run,

462
00:49:24,709 --> 00:49:27,333
you could slide over
once in a while,

463
00:49:27,417 --> 00:49:29,792
that made 'em
think they'd miss ya.

464
00:49:29,875 --> 00:49:33,875
But on a bomb run, you just
had to set there and take it.

465
00:49:37,458 --> 00:49:40,917
Try to shrivel up,
I guess.

466
00:49:43,041 --> 00:49:46,083
Harrison:
The lead ship does it all.

467
00:49:46,166 --> 00:49:48,625
You just follow what he does.

468
00:49:48,709 --> 00:49:51,667
The lead ship, and then
the two on each side,

469
00:49:51,750 --> 00:49:55,041
one down there and one up here
and around there.

470
00:49:59,709 --> 00:50:03,458
Toombs:
I was flyin' right above
the leader,

471
00:50:03,542 --> 00:50:05,625
and when you're watching him

472
00:50:05,709 --> 00:50:10,041
and you see that the bomb door
is open, then you open too.

473
00:50:10,125 --> 00:50:12,000
And then you wait
for him to drop bombs,

474
00:50:12,083 --> 00:50:14,291
and when he drops bombs,
then you drop 'em.

475
00:50:25,125 --> 00:50:27,333
Kimmel:
We can't change our altitude,

476
00:50:27,417 --> 00:50:29,500
and we can't change
our direction,

477
00:50:29,583 --> 00:50:32,750
and we're what you call
sitting ducks at that moment.

478
00:50:36,500 --> 00:50:39,500
Harrison:
It was rough,
because any minute,

479
00:50:39,583 --> 00:50:41,583
you were gonna get hit.

480
00:52:02,834 --> 00:52:05,667
Kimmel:
The bombs are dropped,
bombs away,

481
00:52:05,750 --> 00:52:08,667
and the first thing
you hear is,

482
00:52:08,750 --> 00:52:11,792
"Let's get the hell
outta here."

483
00:52:11,875 --> 00:52:16,875
We make a sharp turn,
and the group follows the lead.

484
00:52:19,959 --> 00:52:21,417
Doyle:
After a while,

485
00:52:21,500 --> 00:52:23,500
fighter attacks
started coming in,

486
00:52:23,583 --> 00:52:26,208
and they didn't miss
very often.

487
00:52:48,583 --> 00:52:50,792
Toombs:
They'd be out 20, 30 miles,

488
00:52:50,875 --> 00:52:54,208
and they'd come rush
straight at your level.

489
00:53:01,291 --> 00:53:05,333
Harrison:
You couldn't hit anything
with those guns like that.

490
00:53:05,417 --> 00:53:08,792
By the time you saw a guy,
he was gone.

491
00:53:08,875 --> 00:53:11,875
You'd see one comin',
he's gone.

492
00:53:35,208 --> 00:53:39,166
Rowland:
You don't have much time
to shoot at 'em.

493
00:53:39,250 --> 00:53:42,500
If you get off a burst or two,
well, you're lucky,

494
00:53:42,583 --> 00:53:44,750
then they'd go zoop!

495
00:54:03,041 --> 00:54:06,333
Toombs:
He'll drop off,
he'll fly down,

496
00:54:06,417 --> 00:54:08,291
and then he'll line up on ya.

497
00:54:08,375 --> 00:54:11,125
Then he'll peel off.

498
00:54:48,959 --> 00:54:52,250
Harrison:
The copilot was hit pretty hard
when we were shot down.

499
00:54:52,333 --> 00:54:57,583
A 20-millimeter shell
popped right above his head

500
00:54:57,667 --> 00:54:59,750
and it knocked an eye out.

501
00:55:01,750 --> 00:55:07,458
So it was high noon,
an ME-109 was back there
blasting at us,

502
00:55:07,542 --> 00:55:12,208
and I heard the copilot,
he said, "Jesus Christ,

503
00:55:12,291 --> 00:55:15,500
number four's on fire.
Get out."

504
00:55:19,542 --> 00:55:22,583
When that thing is spinnin'
and headin' down,

505
00:55:22,667 --> 00:55:24,291
you were glued to your seat,

506
00:55:24,375 --> 00:55:26,750
you couldn't move
if you wanted to.

507
00:55:30,709 --> 00:55:34,417
Villagran:
And you're lucky if you see
two or three guys bail out.

508
00:55:37,709 --> 00:55:39,166
We would count the chutes,

509
00:55:39,250 --> 00:55:41,667
and usually if we
started to look too long

510
00:55:41,750 --> 00:55:43,583
after a ship
that was going down,

511
00:55:43,667 --> 00:55:46,333
the pilot would say,
"OK, guys, off--"

512
00:55:46,417 --> 00:55:47,792
We didn't want
to spend too much time

513
00:55:47,875 --> 00:55:49,667
looking at a plane going down

514
00:55:49,750 --> 00:55:52,917
when we had fighters
in the area and so forth.

515
00:56:01,083 --> 00:56:04,917
Harrison:
The gunners and the others
that were watching all the time

516
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:09,083
would tell ya, "Boy,
I don't think anybody got out
of that one, nobody got out,"

517
00:56:09,166 --> 00:56:13,542
and then sometimes
you'd see chutes
comin' out of 'em

518
00:56:13,625 --> 00:56:15,917
before they blew up
or anything.

519
00:56:18,625 --> 00:56:20,625
If you didn't
have your chute on

520
00:56:20,709 --> 00:56:24,000
and get out of there
in less than 30 seconds,

521
00:56:24,083 --> 00:56:25,458
you're gone.

522
00:56:27,083 --> 00:56:28,959
You're gone.

523
00:56:30,750 --> 00:56:36,125
And seven out of eleven
out of my crew got out alive...

524
00:56:36,208 --> 00:56:39,667
and one of 'em,
when he got on the ground,

525
00:56:39,750 --> 00:56:42,250
they pitchforked him to death.

526
00:56:43,917 --> 00:56:47,000
How could you kill a human
like that?

527
00:57:23,333 --> 00:57:27,250
Kimmel:
As we approached the field,
we set off flares.

528
00:57:27,333 --> 00:57:30,625
Red flares means
you have wounded aboard.

529
00:57:30,709 --> 00:57:32,917
Everybody else
gets out of the way

530
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,125
and the wounded comes in first.

531
00:58:24,458 --> 00:58:26,750
Kimmel:
To this day, I still see it.

532
00:58:26,834 --> 00:58:29,125
When I think of it,
I choke up.

533
00:58:29,208 --> 00:58:31,500
I can't help it,
they were friends of mine,

534
00:58:31,583 --> 00:58:34,959
they were good friends,
and it hurt so bad.

535
00:58:35,041 --> 00:58:38,875
Especially we all felt like:
"What a waste."

536
00:58:42,500 --> 00:58:47,333
With the job we had,
the chance of dying
was at least 50%.

537
00:58:47,417 --> 00:58:51,625
50% chance of living,
50% chance of dying.

538
00:58:55,375 --> 00:58:57,291
Haedike:
You know, a guy said,
"Your name's on it."

539
00:58:57,375 --> 00:58:59,333
Well, maybe it was.

540
00:58:59,417 --> 00:59:01,667
But it was scary.

541
00:59:01,750 --> 00:59:07,959
And I get very irritated
when I hear some of these guys
say, "I wasn't scared one bit."

542
00:59:08,041 --> 00:59:10,291
They're full of prunes.

543
00:59:14,250 --> 00:59:16,834
I was scared every time.

544
00:59:23,625 --> 00:59:26,208
Kimmel:
I went out to a ship one time

545
00:59:26,291 --> 00:59:28,750
when they were taking
a young fella off,

546
00:59:28,834 --> 00:59:32,125
and I thought
I could help them.

547
00:59:34,208 --> 00:59:36,417
The guy they were pulling
out of the ship...

548
00:59:39,625 --> 00:59:43,166
( voice breaking ) ...he was
calling for his mother.

549
01:00:33,250 --> 01:00:37,291
Haedike:
In about late 1944,

550
01:00:37,375 --> 01:00:40,458
the Allies decided

551
01:00:40,542 --> 01:00:44,041
to do away
with precision bombing.

552
01:00:45,875 --> 01:00:48,333
We went to pattern bombing.

553
01:00:50,041 --> 01:00:52,375
Unfortunately, it killed
a lot of people,

554
01:00:52,458 --> 01:00:57,208
but brought the war to a close
about a year sooner.

555
01:01:06,583 --> 01:01:09,500
Doyle:
The United States military

556
01:01:09,583 --> 01:01:13,500
did not go out
to carpet-bomb civilians
or anything.

557
01:01:13,583 --> 01:01:16,041
They went out
to bomb factories,

558
01:01:16,125 --> 01:01:18,333
rail yards, refineries,

559
01:01:18,417 --> 01:01:20,750
and places that had something
to do with the war.

560
01:01:20,834 --> 01:01:23,542
I don't think that
I felt bad about that at all.

561
01:01:23,625 --> 01:01:25,750
That's what we were
supposed to do.

562
01:01:25,834 --> 01:01:29,959
But toward the end of the war,
the Germans would not give up.

563
01:01:50,375 --> 01:01:52,000
Toombs:
Never thought a thing about it.

564
01:01:52,083 --> 01:01:55,166
We didn't think about people
being down there.

565
01:01:56,417 --> 01:01:57,875
That never crossed my mind,

566
01:01:57,959 --> 01:02:00,458
about a human being
bein' down there.

567
01:02:11,834 --> 01:02:14,709
Alexander:
Never gave it a thought,
they just Germans,

568
01:02:14,792 --> 01:02:17,625
you know, and I never
gave it a thought.

569
01:02:28,250 --> 01:02:30,917
Doyle:
For some reason,
I didn't hate 'em.

570
01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:32,750
If I had a fighter plane

571
01:02:32,834 --> 01:02:35,333
come within
shooting-me distance,

572
01:02:35,417 --> 01:02:39,875
my thought was, "This kid
probably wanted to live
as bad as you did."

573
01:02:42,166 --> 01:02:44,625
I really didn't have
any hate for 'em.

574
01:02:44,709 --> 01:02:46,458
I was just scared of 'em.

575
01:02:50,291 --> 01:02:52,166
Kimmel:
Never gave it a thought.

576
01:02:52,250 --> 01:02:54,583
I honestly
never gave it a thought.

577
01:02:54,667 --> 01:02:57,333
I just felt this way:

578
01:02:57,417 --> 01:02:59,083
"They're gonna do it to us,

579
01:02:59,166 --> 01:03:01,625
we better do it to them
before they do it to us."

580
01:03:01,709 --> 01:03:04,500
And that's the way I felt,
and I couldn't help it.

581
01:03:44,333 --> 01:03:48,458
Interviewer:
Bring any thoughts,
seeing that?

582
01:03:48,542 --> 01:03:52,542
Toombs:
Well, I drifted off into
several thoughts.

583
01:03:52,625 --> 01:03:56,000
Most of 'em, you know, uh...

584
01:03:56,083 --> 01:03:58,500
were bad thoughts when
you're lookin' at a mission.

585
01:03:58,583 --> 01:04:03,500
I see what took place
on that mission,

586
01:04:03,583 --> 01:04:07,208
and your mind drifts back
to those times, you know.

587
01:04:22,875 --> 01:04:25,625
Doyle:
We had a lot
of midair collisions.

588
01:04:25,709 --> 01:04:28,500
Some guys would get mixed up,
pilots,

589
01:04:28,583 --> 01:04:33,000
and they'd start flying...
the wrong direction and so on.

590
01:04:33,083 --> 01:04:37,000
But the scary part
of most of our missions

591
01:04:37,083 --> 01:04:39,125
was just getting through
all of that.

592
01:04:41,542 --> 01:04:46,041
Interviewer:
Did it get easier or harder
as you flew more missions?

593
01:04:46,125 --> 01:04:49,417
Doyle:
I just-- Like I say,
I was scared to death.

594
01:04:49,500 --> 01:04:53,667
But, uh...
those were not good days.

595
01:05:04,458 --> 01:05:07,709
There was no radio
communication at all.

596
01:05:07,792 --> 01:05:11,125
We had the intercom goin'
all the time, though.

597
01:05:11,208 --> 01:05:14,834
I'd check in with the man
with the oxygen mask on,

598
01:05:14,917 --> 01:05:18,792
make sure their oxygen
was flowing right.

599
01:05:18,875 --> 01:05:20,500
Especially the tail gunner,

600
01:05:20,583 --> 01:05:23,959
he was layin' back there
by himself so much.

601
01:05:31,792 --> 01:05:35,500
Harrison:
You got very close with
the men and everything.

602
01:05:35,583 --> 01:05:38,041
And they're all young kids.

603
01:05:42,208 --> 01:05:45,166
They're all dead now,
I'm sure.

604
01:05:56,709 --> 01:05:58,125
When you're that high up,

605
01:05:58,208 --> 01:06:01,834
everything on the ground
looks like a little toy.

606
01:06:01,917 --> 01:06:04,667
If you see a truck or something,

607
01:06:04,750 --> 01:06:06,709
it really looks small.

608
01:06:08,333 --> 01:06:12,000
It was hard,
but you had to do it.

609
01:06:12,083 --> 01:06:15,875
We had to get rid of Hitler,
and so we did it.

610
01:06:28,208 --> 01:06:32,542
You guys know that some bombs
went through the wings of B-17s?

611
01:06:33,875 --> 01:06:35,875
I always wondered
how in the world--

612
01:06:35,959 --> 01:06:38,041
They were out of position...

613
01:06:38,125 --> 01:06:40,041
in the formation.

614
01:06:41,375 --> 01:06:44,208
God's been good to me.

615
01:06:44,291 --> 01:06:47,291
First of all,
he's given me 70 years

616
01:06:47,375 --> 01:06:49,333
with that lady over there,

617
01:06:49,417 --> 01:06:52,083
and we have a wonderful family.

618
01:06:56,291 --> 01:06:57,917
We have six kids

619
01:06:58,000 --> 01:07:01,667
and we have 20 grandkids,
22 great-grandkids.

620
01:07:01,750 --> 01:07:05,750
So we've been
a very blessed family.

621
01:07:05,834 --> 01:07:09,083
I didn't say I want 'em all
at the house at once.

622
01:07:16,208 --> 01:07:18,667
Interviewer:
What do you think
about "The Good War"

623
01:07:18,750 --> 01:07:20,709
and "You're
the Greatest Generation"?

624
01:07:23,125 --> 01:07:27,375
Villagran:
Well...
I'm beginning to believe it.

625
01:07:30,375 --> 01:07:32,667
Does that make sense to ya?

626
01:07:34,917 --> 01:07:39,458
You kind of grew up 10 years
when you went into that thing.

627
01:07:41,083 --> 01:07:44,208
And when I came back home,

628
01:07:44,291 --> 01:07:47,125
I didn't feel like
the same man anymore.

629
01:07:54,625 --> 01:07:58,333
Interviewer:
What do you say to people
who say, "John, you're a hero.

630
01:07:58,417 --> 01:07:59,917
You're a hero"?

631
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:01,625
Ketzner:
I say, "OK,
you're probably right."

632
01:08:01,709 --> 01:08:04,542
I don't know what else to say.

633
01:08:04,625 --> 01:08:07,041
I wasn't one
of the hero-heroes,

634
01:08:07,125 --> 01:08:10,625
the guys that finish
their tour and sign up
for another one,

635
01:08:10,709 --> 01:08:13,667
I wasn't them kind of heroes.

636
01:08:15,792 --> 01:08:17,917
Alexander:
But I want it clearly known:

637
01:08:18,000 --> 01:08:20,792
I do not profess myself
to be a hero.

638
01:08:20,875 --> 01:08:23,417
I was the pilot;

639
01:08:23,500 --> 01:08:27,750
the heroes are buried in
England, Germany, and France.

640
01:08:27,834 --> 01:08:31,041
The boys didn't make it,
they're the heroes.

641
01:08:31,125 --> 01:08:33,333
I was just a normal pilot.

642
01:08:52,917 --> 01:08:55,542
This is called pattern bombing.

643
01:09:02,041 --> 01:09:04,542
Interviewer:
No offense, but you guys
aren't getting any younger.

644
01:09:04,625 --> 01:09:06,250
Why do you think
it's important

645
01:09:06,333 --> 01:09:09,083
that people know
what you guys did?

646
01:09:11,375 --> 01:09:12,959
Kimmel:
Well, for one thing,

647
01:09:13,041 --> 01:09:14,917
we don't want it
to to happen again,

648
01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:18,458
in fact or in fancy.

649
01:09:18,542 --> 01:09:20,500
We just don't want it
to happen again,

650
01:09:20,583 --> 01:09:25,709
for my grandson,
my granddaughters
and their husbands.

651
01:09:28,583 --> 01:09:32,750
I don't want to see them
have to face what we did.

652
01:10:19,625 --> 01:10:22,792
Haedike:
I cannot say it
much more eloquently--

653
01:10:22,875 --> 01:10:25,792
it was a hazardous profession.

654
01:10:27,834 --> 01:10:31,208
OK, up at altitude and,
of course, bombs away and all,

655
01:10:31,291 --> 01:10:32,792
and you got this on,

656
01:10:32,875 --> 01:10:35,166
I think fear
more than anything,

657
01:10:35,250 --> 01:10:38,208
you'd perspire and sweat.

658
01:10:38,291 --> 01:10:40,333
You got this on.

659
01:10:40,417 --> 01:10:43,500
Ice would form,
and you'd take a deep breath

660
01:10:43,583 --> 01:10:46,500
and break the ice
out of the oxygen mask.

661
01:10:46,583 --> 01:10:49,083
And then put it back on.

662
01:10:51,667 --> 01:10:55,333
This is Bud
trying to get down on the floor.

663
01:10:55,417 --> 01:10:57,417
This is the Mae West.

664
01:10:57,500 --> 01:10:59,917
Remember I told ya
about the oxygen?

665
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:02,125
I mean, the CO2 cylinder?

666
01:11:02,208 --> 01:11:05,083
This is it.
There it is.

667
01:11:05,166 --> 01:11:07,083
CO2 cylinder.

668
01:11:07,166 --> 01:11:10,583
This was before
underarm deodorant,
hair spray--

669
01:11:10,667 --> 01:11:14,834
I think this was the birth
of aerosol containers.

670
01:11:14,917 --> 01:11:18,917
And if guys bailed out,
they didn't want it
totally inflated

671
01:11:19,000 --> 01:11:20,750
couple hundred feet up,

672
01:11:20,834 --> 01:11:24,583
because if they hit the water,
they could break their backs.

673
01:11:24,667 --> 01:11:27,083
So it wasn't that easy.
I never did it.

674
01:11:27,166 --> 01:11:28,917
This is a throat mic.

675
01:11:29,000 --> 01:11:31,333
This is how
I talked to Eric.

676
01:11:31,417 --> 01:11:32,917
And this plugged in.

677
01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:35,709
And as I showed ya
on the helmet,

678
01:11:35,792 --> 01:11:37,291
this is how I heard.

679
01:11:37,375 --> 01:11:39,458
So we had
our communication system.

680
01:11:39,542 --> 01:11:41,291
Interviewer:
But, Bud, to be clear,

681
01:11:41,375 --> 01:11:44,208
this should have been returned
to the government in 1945.

682
01:11:46,542 --> 01:11:48,417
Come and get 'em, baby.

683
01:11:48,500 --> 01:11:50,542
Interviewer:
What we just did with you

684
01:11:50,625 --> 01:11:52,333
might be the credit roll
to our movie,

685
01:11:52,417 --> 01:11:53,959
so you have any messages
for people

686
01:11:54,041 --> 01:11:55,709
that just watched
this movie?

687
01:11:55,792 --> 01:11:59,792
Well, I'm just so glad
that people in America,

688
01:11:59,875 --> 01:12:04,625
or anywhere,
can get an idea what 19 and 20

689
01:12:04,709 --> 01:12:07,417
and 21-year-old kids
went through,

690
01:12:07,500 --> 01:12:10,875
and as I tell kids
when I get done with my talk,

691
01:12:10,959 --> 01:12:13,667
"I'm gonna ask you guys
a favor now."

692
01:12:13,750 --> 01:12:15,166
"What's that, Bud?"

693
01:12:15,250 --> 01:12:16,542
"When you go home tonight,

694
01:12:16,625 --> 01:12:19,125
you say a prayer of thanks
to God

695
01:12:19,208 --> 01:12:22,709
for those 28,000 guys
that gave their lives

696
01:12:22,792 --> 01:12:25,542
so that you  got
the life you got today."

697
01:12:27,917 --> 01:12:29,333
Interviewer:
Well, thank you
for your service, Bud.

698
01:12:29,417 --> 01:12:31,250
Haedike:
Not at all. Not at all.