Why the fascination?

I'm not a hawk. I'm a dove.

I spent four years in the Air Force, during the wrong war (Viet Nam). Not convinced? Please read A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan and let's talk. There have been other wrong wars, declared and undeclared, before and since. (By the way, doesn't the Constitution say "Only Congress declare war?" I guess the Patriot Act trumped that little technicality.)

By the way, I was nowhere near a combat area and the scariest things that happened to me were when my swivel chair got all squeaky and when the air conditioning broke in our "compound." Well, actually Sergeant Benvenides in Basic was pretty scary and he definitely happened to me.

By all consensus, World War II was a "good" war. The Italians were definitely the bad guys. But, as in all wars, "The Italians" included babies, grandmas, pacifists, dumb conscripts and, yes, Mussolini, blackshirts, zealots, war heroes, cowards, and all the rest. The human side of this B-24 / Varese story is very, very interesting to me however. Thanks to being here and to the Internet, I will speak (electronically in one case) to human beings who, through very little choice of their own, were tied together on a day in April, 1944.

Vern Kennedy, a 76 year old former Pan Am pilot knows "Del" Kenyon of the crew, and expects to see him tomorrow at an emphysema support group they both attend! He will pass on my comments and hopes to get more information.