Warbird Information Exchange

The writer should be taken to task for not doing more research in producing this story. It would make for an interesting piece of fiction. Basic research would have proven this story false and without creedence.

A reporters responsibility is to get the facts right, not to entertain. When Roone Arledge moved the ABC news deparment in to the entertainment division BECAUSE of its profitability; he did all of us a great disservice. The news isn't to entertain us, it is to inform us. The mixing of entertainment and fact finding has been blurred( witness the M Jackson nonsense). There are to many competing sources that will craft the stories to what their audience craves and not a consensus of the truth. Why bother with cross checking and fact finding when it cuts into the profits.

Yes his story is interesting, but so thinly unsubstantiated that it is nonsense. I hope that the editor that approved this story is retiring soon.

Senality is a real pain ...now what was the question?

You are talking about afternoon alzheimers that starts when.........I forget.

Best story I've read since the "Douglas Bader on holiday in Liverpool" one.

Sad that some old guy - genuine vet or not we don't know - is so far gone he comes up with this sort of trash.

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Awfully nice aeroplane piccies available

Unfortunatly I can relate to stories like this...my Grandfather was a WW1 vet. He's gone now God rest his soul but his stories about "the Great War" turned into some real whoppers as he got on in years.

He was interveiwed by the History Channel and *most* of the time he was pretty on target....but compairing his war stories as told in his earlier years vs. the same ones or new ones told in his late 80's and early 90's just before he died, they are dramaticly different...and I mean DRAMAiticly. Grandpa always had a lot of pomp and circumstance about him....he tended to elaborate, fabricate and pontificate about anything and everything, the older he got the worse it got.

So I can kinda see where this old Marine "thinks" he saw what he claims to have...served in a unit he claims existed, but didn't. It's unfortunate that his delusions got published, the reporter oughta get smacked upside the head by their journalism prof for not reasearching the story. Old people get "that way"...I've seen it, it ain't pretty.

Alzheimers is nasty, it robs you of your memories, robs your family of the one who has it. You die alone in your mind, without knowing who you are or who those nice people standing at your bedside are.

Sorry, had to get that off my chest...rant over.

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Rob

As an addenum..I take no offense to wisecracks or jokes about mental illness, Alzheimers in particular. Humor was our way of dealing with what ever the grandparents were going to say or do next. my Grandmother, in her lucid moments, would crack jokes about what the "other old bat" might have said or done when she was of in lala land. Other times she was horrified at what she had said or done but realised that it was the drugs or the diesese talking.

That old fella spouting all the crap about the A-bomb would probably be horrified if he knew what he was saying...

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Rob

i can relate..... BOTH!!!! YES BOTH!!!! of my inlaws have & had alzheimers. my mother inlaw finally died this april, after 7 years in a state of vegetation. my father in law not far behind. these are the golden years for some???? ha!!! how do you think my wife feels & worries about the gene factor??? my mom & dad on the flip side...... dad is 89, still full of piss & vinegar, fishing, gardening, golfing, giving us hell in the family biz. my mom, 83, just gave up tennis, doctors orders!!!! but works out 3 days a week at their health club!!! tom brokaw put it right..... they are the greatest generation, as to the turn out, yes, some bad others good. i'm lucky!! with out sounding sappy, those of us with parents of the ww 2 generation have alot to be thankful for. most of what you have is thanks to them. regards, tom

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Just watched the History Channel the other day - and there was an underneath shot of "Bockscar" clearly showing the rotund part of "Fat Man" protruding from the bombay which was in two seperate sections, fore and aft.

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Remember: Oops is a bad word

Another related article concerning "MISinformation" about Bockscar.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... e-maryland

regards,

t~

Very interesting article. I never knew there were any crew members that flew both atomic bomb missions.

I have the upmost respect for veterans, & I welcome any experiences that they can share with us, espically the WW2 types. I wish I had payed more attention to my fathers stories & even most of all I wish I had recorded them. He has been gone for 2 plus years now, & thank God he died with a mind that still worked pretty clear. His flying stories never changed & to this day are repeated by the other pilots he flew with to pretty much the same detail. Now my Mother-God Bless her is in the first stages of Alzheimers, & her memory is crystal clear on some things, & others she thinks she remembers in detail but they can be things that are far from accurate. However to her they are very real. My point being that first of all from what I gather it seems to me that this old Marine's story about the bomb is hardly credable. I would go so far as to say it could be be just flat out bullsh1t, which I think it is. BUT if someone recognized that these were the ramblings of their father, husband, or otherwise that does have this horrible Alzheimers, & permited to or in fact published this silly story that he may BELEVE to be true, then they should be ashamed & have their a-s whipped. Sorry to get on the old soapbox but this one touched a nerve.
My Regards To All
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

The Enola Gay stories beings this one back to mind. Courtesy of our local rag.

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Don't touch my junk!!

gary1954 <-------Retired Military , and having served 20 years 6 months 3 days for a crime I didn't commit, I can say that the I have a nephew that is a Marine , got nothing against Marines , and I can also say that the former Marine cocking up that story is a Nut...he is.... a nut

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Kind Regards,
Gary Lewis
J.A.F.O.

..someone or the whole crew was supposed to be ..uh...'fairy cakes' and this was secret code for others...blah blah blah

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EVERYTHING that CAN fly should be ALLOWED to FLY!
IWO JIMA'S best narative..."GOD ISN'T HERE"
http://www.amazon.com/God-Isnt-Here-Ame ... 0976154706


P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.

S: Took hammer away from midget.

it wouldnt be the only time your government has lied to you.