My dad flew B-24s on the Ploesti raids. Google them if you aren’t familiar, highest casualty rates of the war. Ploesti was Hitler’s only oil refinery. If we could knock it out, the war would probably have been over. So we went after it with all we had and the Germans defended it with all they had.

He finished his missions in Europe, came home and was transitioning th B-25s for the invasion of Japan when Truman dropped the bomb. He came home, got married, and later along came me.

My mom told us the full story when my son and I took her to Hiroshima. It was a very emotional moment for us all.