Dream

I know I am doing a lot of research when I start to dream about it. This particular dream was more of a nightmare, but it was realistic and gave me a picture of the last seconds in the Cockpit for the Hetzler Crew in their B-24. On March 23, 1944, flying at 21, 000 feet above the small German village of Alverskirchen, the formation began to encounter a barrage of intense flak...deadly accurate. The Crew was flying a B-24 named Fritzi since their Jayhawker was being repaired again from combat damage. My dream was like a movie, it was in color, but everything had an old fashion greenish tint. My view was from the pilot's seat. I could hear the roar of the 4 engines, the feeling of stress on the bomb run (the target was a small Nazi Airbase) and just wanting to hurry up and get this part over with, when an ear ringing, deafening explosion lurched the aircraft down in a left bank at an awkward attitude. I looked to my right and clearly recognized Co-Pilot Ken Brett from the many pictures I have seen of him and it was strange to see him in live motion. He was all business and a complete professional, even in this emergency. We both went to work on the controls, but instead of the familiar pressure, all was limp, we had absolutely no control of the plane. I looked at Brett again and now saw a look of hopelessness and resignation, which I must have shared...I panicked, which woke me up...it was 4:00 in the morning...I never did fall back to sleep and went to school tired, but I was thankful for the picture I now have in my mind of an event that I have studied so much, but wish had never happened. My daydream is to be with the crew in happier circumstances, such as flying with them across the Atlantic to their base in England, I would love to have had that dream instead. But, one of my fondest wishes is to be able to travel back in time and this is as close as I will ever get.

The photo is courtesy of George Reynolds via Darin Scorza.