Humorous Heroism

IT SEEMS THAT ALMOST every American family has a veteran with a good story. We might wish that there were fewer combat veterans, fewer war stories, fewer wars, and fewer history books full of wars and war stories. But we do what we must. Everyone has a unique reason for entering the military, and a unique adventure to report, or to keep secret, after leaving military service. My father had just graduated from law school, passed the bar exam, and begun practice with my grandfather, when Pearl Harbor happened. Knowing well that he was no military man by nature, but that he had to do something, he tried to join the FBI. They turned him down; perhaps they saw through his scam. He ended up in the navy, for four years, 1942-1946. He became a lieutenant junior grade, which is about equal to a second lieutenant in the army, almost immediately after enlisting, because of his law degree. In Panama, he was in charge of a platoon, and his job consisted mainly of teaching others how to fly. He himself had signed on for flight duty right from the beginning. He was trained in the desert of southern california, flying Steerman bi-planes over companies of black infantry on the ground, who themselves were in training, while my dad and his co pilot dropped bombs on the troops, using sacks of sugar as simulated bombs. On a routine scouting mission over the Caribbean, a German U Boat surfaced, and put a bullet through his wing, just for fun. He chose not to fight back, and flew away, back to the air strip and safety, landed the plane, reported the U Boat, and went home. After the war, my father spent much of his life losing himself, or perhaps losing the world, in alcohol. Everytime he told a war story, it was hilarious. Never anything unpleasant. My grandmother claimed that this was all a front, and a cover, and that the war drove him to drink, with its lonliness, monotony, and fear. John F Kennedy once said "there are three things that are real. God, human folly, and humor. The first two are beyond our comprehenesion; we must do what we can with the third." In the midst of our pervasive human folly, with all its seemingly needless suffering, a little humor ameliorates a great deal of hell. Not all war stories are heroic, but some of the best are true, and funny as hell.