of democracy, prosperity and peace. Let us hope there is more to come. Vote! ( I was 2 years old when this event took place)

.. Scharff was the last crew member found, over two years after the crash. His great-nephew Jim Reedy was at the memorial’s unveiling.

- “If we don’t do things like this, the memory will atrophy and people will eventually forget all about it,” Reedy said.

- “It’s important to keep the memory alive so we don’t repeat the same mistakes again.”

Kudos to the college student for a superb piece of research and follow through.

Love the picture of Air Force men dressed in Army uniforms.

The B-17 was an important aircraft, a bomber which did day runs,
it was a fortress and could take a lot of flak and still do its job.

the Frenchman WW2 researcher she found. I wanted to cover this aspect more in the post, but space was tight.

How encouraging to see a 'history' major! these days. I'm familiar with her school too, GWU.

Yes, the photos are super, those were big fortresses with well trained young men. What a time.

She did her university proud for sure.
Yes credit to the history major!

I know, it was quite a time during WWII.

One thing people don't realize is that the psychology and education professionals
played a huge role in making sure the US military was top notch and well trained.
Like with these young men.

The US declared war after Pearl Harbor, had a big job with all the men being drafted and volunteering.
How to select the best people for each job. Select for the best skill set and aptitude, etc.

Psychologist and educators put pedal to the metal and quickly came up with excellent screening
tools for thousands and thousands of new recruits. Quickly and efficiently identifying people
for various highly skilled jobs. Or the aptitude to be quickly trained.

A good friend of mine, her father is a good example. He was an extremely bright man with
a high degree of mechanical ability. He gets drafted in WWII, is tested, immediately sent to
Florida for airplane mechanic training. Becomes a top student and is sent to Asia to work on the
famous Flying Tiger aircraft. All in a very short period of time.

these many specialists to screen, test, identify and place new military recruits and to administer large operations.

The friend's father with mechanical skill is a good example. I know my father who was selected for OCS, Lt. Army AAA went through a lot of training esp. on large Bofurs guns at bases in NC and Texas before shipping out to England. His younger brother in the Coast Guard went thru plenty too.

Their father had sent them to military school for HS in the late 1930s-40s. I think it was because he knew like many people that war was coming. He was also sharp and educated with political connections.

The US powers in charge knew how serious the possibility of fascist control of Europe was, and how large the effort could be in scale esp. after WWI, the Spanish Civil War 'preview' and Hitler's aggressive military build up.

Technology and armaments had also advanced during the interwar years - communications, radio, vehicles, airplanes, submarines and more.

The Project 2025 plan, I wonder how many people have even heard of it, scary. People are working hard, there's lots to distract them from politics, it's summer and then back to school. Democrats need to drive a huge push to GOTV, obviously! Nice chatting, see you around!

So there has to be some selection process.

The military training of your father no doubt gave him a leg up and fast track to OCS.
And obviously he was impressive in his test scores.

I think most people are clueless. They have no idea what is in store for this country.

Yes nice chatting!