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Originally Posted by Zinmar
I have been talking to him and he has given me the ok to record our conversations. Now I am not a writer but I am sure that there are some guys out there that can do that.
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That's one of the best things you can do.
There's this bar I go to for happy hour with my buddies sometimes, and there was this little old man named Jack who would come in every afternoon, have a couple gin and tonics and leave, like clockwork. I got talking to him one day and we got on the topic of war. I asked if he served in WW2. He said he was stationed on an escort carrier in the Pacific and was a pilot. I bought him a drink and he told me about flying patrols. I asked him if he saw any action and he told me that he shot down a couple Zeros. I asked if they were really as fast as their reputation makes them out to be and he told me they were, but its like they were made of paper...a few well placed shots and they went down. I made sure to thank him for what he did for us, and in typical vet fashion he told me "Oh hell, that was 60 years ago." and I said "Yes, but think about how things would be if you DIDN'T go and do what you did 60 years ago."
He told me a story about a young Mormon kid from Utah, only 17 or 18 years old. He went up for his first patrol and when he returned to the ship, the deck crew was helping him out of his plane and Jack said his eyes were as big as saucers and he had messed his flight suit. The deck crew asked him what the hell happened up there, and the kid said "I...I saw my first Zero!" They asked if he got him, and the kid told them he did, and they all laughed and told him good job and sent him to go get himself cleaned up. It was a great story, the way Jack told it.
Sadly, that was the last time I ever talked to Jack. I didn't see him for a couple weeks, and I asked the bar owner (who I'm friends with) where he was. She told me he passed away a few days before. So I raised my glass to him. Here's to you Jack!
