70 Years Ago..
Japanese planes bombed our fleet at Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II.
Today, my favorite veteran hosts a showing of Twelve O’Clock High at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington.
Here’s what the newspaper (and my dad) had to say about the event:
Meanwhile, the Kentucky Theater, 214 East Main Street, will mark the anniversary with a free screening of Twelve O’Clock High, the Academy Award-winning 1949 movie about the U.S. 8th Air Force fliers who bombed Germany in 1942-45.
It will begin at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday with the introduction of several 8th Air Force veterans. The movie, which will follow, was arranged by Lexington’s Frank Cassidy, who flew 35 missions as an 8th Air Force tail gunner.
Cassidy said he hopes the Twelve O’Clock High screening will help today’s Lexingtonians understand what World War II fliers went through.
“This date, Dec. 7, 1941, changed the lives of many young men, me included,” he said. “I was still in high school when Pearl Harbor happened, and the next thing I knew, I was headed into the Air Force. Everything was different after that.”
Unlike many war films, Twelve O’Clock High explores not just the heroism of the fliers, but the psychological scars that many suffered in facing death day after day.
The 8th Air Force veterans will meet the public and answer questions after the movie.
(My father will be one of them.)
One thought on “70 Years Ago..”
Imagine, a tail-gunner. As a boy in the immediate aftermath of WWII, we played every manner of warrior, including a tail-gunner. It was cramped, and thr glass floor gave me vertigo. My best buddy became eventually a Navy Seal in Vietnam. Our foes were Japanese and Germans, our friends were English and French. We "played" war. The Greatest Generation waged it. Now they are passing from sight and memory. God bless the Frank Cassidys. Their story deserves the inspiration it gives us. Thanks for this.