MISSING AIR CREW REPORT

B-17G 42-31410 hit by flak over target. Aircraft could not be controlled by the pilot. As it was believed a runaway prop would explode, the order to bailout was given. Seven men left the aircraft at 5238-1310.

The men were instructed to make delayed jumps to avoid machine gun fire.

None of the chutes were seen to open.

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Three details have always stood out to me as I’ve learned about my grandfather’s experiences as a WWII bombardier and then prisoner of war in Nazi Germany.

First, members of his crew were captured, shot, and nearly beaten to death by a mob of civilians as they hit the ground. German soldiers had to intervene. This was well into the war – Oct '44. They knew full well what evils were being done in their name. Still, they participated.

Second, my grandfather was taken to Oberursel and interrogated, not by a German, but by an American, who’d been born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He’d defected. He didn’t just agree with the Nazis. He wanted to participate, too.

Third, my grandfather felt a deep, moral conflict over his role in the war. There was no “unified” army to target in his bombsight. There were designated targets, and in them, people.

It’s easy to look back at these details as history and view them as part of a chapter from some finished work, the tale of a bygone generation who lived long ago. The truth is that the story continues to unfold, and the new cast of characters in the series is now us: you and me.

There’s a call for unity and healing in our nation today. It comes only after an enduring assault on our democracy, and directly in the wake of an insurrection stoked by the president. Actions supported, even still, by many of our nation’s elected representatives.

Healing requires that we acknowledge truth and seek justice. It requires that we refuse to turn this page, no matter how much easier that might be, and no matter how many times we’ve done just that only to find ourselves exactly where we are today.

My grandfather risked his life, not to support a demagogue, or his own ideology, or to impose his beliefs on others. He fought because he questioned how he could enjoy, in good conscience, the rights and liberties he had been given if he refused to preserve them for others.

He was there, he said, because only so long as the majority of people in this nation were willing to commit themselves to the preservation of those rights and liberties when they were threatened, could our government be preserved.

Our government is being threatened. Not by a foreign power, but by those who clench their fists in the wake of losing a fair and free election and levy lies and the language of war.

“We will not go down without a fight!”

And by those who not only support, but seem to worship Trump, hoisting flags in his name over our capitol, gallows below, as they parade about wearing the helmet of a police officer they beat to death moments earlier.

There will always be those among us who are drawn to violence and hate, and there will always be those that support, embolden, and follow them. Healing and unity do not require that we join with these people or accept their desires and demands as mere difference of opinion.

It requires that we do the opposite, and make clear that we reject hate and division and violence, and refuse to accept or ignore it. That we take from them their safe spaces and part them from their spheres of influence. That we hold them accountable.

It also requires that we hold ourselves and each other accountable.

That we confront our own role in a society that has perpetuated hate and division for hundreds of years, with the rights and liberties that many of us enjoy being denied to so many others based on the color of their skin, who they love, or how they choose to pursue happiness.

That is where we should seek unification and healing with each other. It is not enough to preserve a government that serves the privileged few. We must demand better and we must do better. How could any of us, in good conscience, accept anything less?