A 90 year-old WW2 vet moved me to tears yesterday, and I'm so glad he did!

[Major Nikon]

10. A flight instructor I had for a while was a B-17 pilot during WWII

B-17s/B-24s were massive planes that darkened the skies when they flew en masse and were shot down wholesale by the Germans taking down a crew of 10 or 11 men with each one. The losses were staggering. 4145 heavy bombers were lost out of 10631 which means you had about a 40% chance of things going very badly. My old instructor told a couple of stories that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. He said the thought of what was going on underneath their bombing runs was too terrible to think about and they had to focus on the mission and trying to get out alive themselves.