My Time in The Mighty 8th

My Time in The Mighty 8th part 3

We pulled up outside the bar where the dance was being held with a big southern yell,so we called it. Jim and George went and parked the jeeps and met us inside. This was the first dance in over 15 weeks we had attended since we left for boot camp and probably the first girls we've seen as well. We walked in to as usual Austin already picked the best looking girl and she was single.

We were there for a little over an hour before we had to return to base for a early morning raid. Austin got him a girlfriend go figure. But as the war is going she might be single after tomorrow. We got back to go into briefing. It was the best news ever it would be our last mission and we were to be shipped to china for bombing on Japan. Only person who didn't was Austin.

Next morning we awoke from our beds to a load explosion. We all raced out side to see during fueling the bomber Rodeo Clown's 4th engine had caught fire. It was quickly put out but they wouldn't be flying today but they had to be in China by the end of the week. Which would be a real challenge but they quickly got to work on it. We all got ready and climbed into Beautiful Ridge for today's excursion. It was silence between us all. After our first 3 missions it was so fun and games anymore,it was war. I can sometimes imagine the fear my cousin felt as he knew he was doomed when he crashed. This wasn't a game this was war,this was hell,this is my life now!

We made it through the mission and rest of the war with no casualties but that mission and from then on got to horrible for me to tell again. It's taken me most my life to forget them and I don't want to go back there again. All of us still keep in touch and see each other often. After the war we all went in together and bought Beautiful Ridge and started an airport on my farm land. We all are married with children now. Austin married that woman he met in Europe and it turns out she was from Roanoke as well. We often think of our Time in The Mighty 8th as a blessing and sometimes as hell. But whatever it was it was a part of our lives and of history that we can't let disappear from history. I'm 55 now and won't be around to many decades from now so pass on this story as I have so history doesn't die with us.

That was War,That was Hell,and That was My Time in The Mighty 8th!