As a lawyer, Bill had spent his professional life ferreting out documents. He made some inquiries and dedicated eleven months to
following where they led. Then one day, a boxed transcript amved in the mail from Washington. The transcript contained the full proceedings of a trial establishing the fates of eight American airmen, Flyboys downed in water in the vicinity of Iwo ima during World War II. Each was shot down during bombing runs against Chichi Jima, the next sland north of two lima. Iwo limn was coveted for its airstrips, Chichi Jima for its communications stations. Powerful short- and long wave receivers and transmitters atop Chichi's Mount Yoake and Mount Asahi were the critical communications links between Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo and Japanese troops in the Pacific. The radio stations had to be destroyed, the US military decided, and the Flyboys had been charged with doing so. A stack of papers my brother found in my dad's office closet after his death in 1994 had launched me on a quest to find my father's past. Now, on Bill's table, I was looking at the stack of papers that would become the first step in another journey. On the same day my father and his buddies raised that flag on Iwo lima, Flyboys were held prisoner just 150 miles away in Chichi Jima. But while everyone knows the famous Iwo Jima photo, no one knew the story of these eight Chichi Jima Flyboys. Nobody knew for a reason. For over two benerations, the truth about their demise was kept secret. The US government decided the facts were so horrible that the families were never told. Over the decades, relatives of the airmen wrote letters and even traveled to Washington DC in search of the truth. Well-meaning bureaucrats turned them away with vague cover stories "All these years I had this nagging feeling these guys wanted their story told Bilt said. Eight mothers had gone to their graves not knowing the fates of their lost sons. Sitting at Bill's table, I suddenly realized that now I know what the Flyboys mothers had never learned.
This is the question I get after this. I'll be offering lots of points for this.
This is the question I get after this. I'll be offering lots of points for this.
1 answer:
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