This tour for Swell Time for a Swing Dance has been a blast so far! Lots of fun posts about the 1940s and Cindy Vincent's newest cozy mystery. (You can catch up on the tour schedule HERE.) Today, though, we're taking a more serious turn with a post honoring those who served in World War II.
I'm so glad Cindy has a heart for our nation's veterans and has made space for us today to remember their sacrifices. I was privileged to attend a memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery in 2010 for a WWII flight crew that included my great-uncle (the remains of their plane went undiscovered until recent years)—and I was incredibly touched by the experience. My posts and video slideshows from the trip can be found HERE and HERE.
We'd love for you to share your own stories in the comments section! And now, here's Cindy...
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Honoring Those Who Were Really There
By Cindy Vincent
It’s time to honor the generation who lived and fought during WWII, from the frontlines to the homefront. And with this post, I’m asking for your participation. I’d like you to share the names of any family members, or other people you might know of, who served in the military or played a role in the war effort in some way. Please tell us a little bit about them. This may require a phone call or two to find out if Grandma or Grandpa, or even Great-Grandma or Great-Grandpa, played a role in fighting for freedom. Whatever they did, please honor them by sharing their stories.
Tom Brokaw referred to the WWII generation as being “The Greatest Generation.” And with good reason. So many of them sacrificed their very lives to battle the evil trying to take over the world. Much of our military at the time was comprised of “Citizen Soldiers,” people who simply gave up or took leave from their regular jobs to enlist in the military, in one form or another. But even those who stayed stateside still endured plenty.
An elderly friend of mine comes to mind. She lived on a family farm and was just fourteen years old when her brothers and her father all enlisted and went to war. That left her and her mother to run the farm when they went away. So at the tender young age of fourteen, my friend was left to run the tractor and was given the responsibility for plowing, planting, and harvesting the crops. Could you imagine doing such a thing at that age?
When I was in my twenties, I had the great privilege of working with plenty of WWII vets in a skilled care nursing home. Their stories and their attitudes have stayed with me all these years. At the time we went to war, the United States military was only ranked number eighteen in the world—not exactly a superpower. Yet from what I heard from the people I met, Americans went into the war believing that we would win. That optimism and high morale got them through a lot. I also heard the phrase, “We didn’t start this war, but we’ll put an end to it.”
Now I’d like to share the story of my husband’s Aunt Jean Hixson. She had always wanted to fly and got her pilot’s license when she was only eighteen. When the war came along, there was a shortage of male pilots, so a program was started to train women as military pilots. So Jean, along with 25,000 other women, applied to become a WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilot). Only 1,830 women were accepted, and Jean made the cut. She was also one of only 1,074 who completed the training. From there, she went to work with whatever assignment she was given. The WASPs were excluded from combat, but she ferried planes between manufacturers and Air Force bases, including overseas transports. And she towed targets for live gunnery practice. She was one gutsy girl!
Here’s her official WASP photo:
Remember, she was barely in her twenties at the time. And here she is doing a preflight:
And finally, here she is with some of her colleagues after flying a twin-engine B-25 bomber (far right). She was an Engineering Test Pilot for this aircraft.
So that’s my tribute to a few members of the Greatest Generation. I hope you’ll join me in sharing whatever family photos and stories you can dig up!
And my thanks go to Amber, for hosting me here today. We’ve worked on many blog tours together, and it’s always a joy to work with her! I look forward to our next one!
Amber: Thank you so much for sharing these amazing stories with us, Cindy! It's always a pleasure to host you and to tour your books together. :)
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Learn more about this book tour (and a special giveaway) HERE.
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