Over the weekend I had a chance to do something I’ve meant to do for years, to be part of an 8th Air Force Historical Society event, thanks to a friend who’s a member. My dad flew in the 95th bomb group of the 8th Air Force and was active in both the 95th Bomb Group and 8th Air Force organizations. I cheered him on through the years but never had time to join him.

Now, of course, I wish I had. Because as much as I enjoyed meeting a couple of the WWII veterans present, all up in their 90s, of course, I only missed Dad more.

There was the familiar 8th Air Force insignia, the talk of where stationed, at some village or another in Britain’s East Anglia. There were the facts and figures, amazing to recount. In 1942 the 8th Air Force had a dozen members. Two years later, there were 300,000. 

And now they’re contracting again, have been for some time, at least when it comes to those who served in WWII. In a crowd of 400-plus … only seven were veterans of the Second World War.