Sixty-Five Years ago Today

It's hard to imagine, but 65 years ago, March 15th, 1945,
my father and the crew of their B-24 Bomber were shot
down over Yugoslavia after a successful bomb run on
the Schwechat Oil Refinery near Vienna, Austria;
a mission which will be written about in much greater
detail during the course of this blog.

It is a story my father retold many, many times, and
we as family members never grew tired of hearing.

Sadly, all of the members of his crew have passed
away, and with them their stories of this event as
well as a piece of our history.

So how do we continue to honor them and their
sacrifice? Perhaps Ronald Reagan said it best in
a speech he gave on the 4oth anniversary of D-Day:

"Let us make a vow to our dead. Let us
show them by our actions that we understand
what they died for. Let our actions say to
them the words for which General Matthew
Ridgeway listened: 'I will not fail thee nor
forsake thee.'

Strengthened by their courage, heartened
by their valor, and borne by their memory,
let us continue to stand for the ideals for
which they lived and died."

Ronald Reagan - June 6, 1984

God Bless.....Liz Bacher