OT: Such is life

Today was a different day. DH and I went to an Air Show at a small regional airport. It is also a WWII weekend. Both reenactors are there along with people trying to sell all sorts of stuff including 'celebrities' autographs/books/pictures etc. I need to back up a bit in history. All my life I have enjoyed one particular uncle mainly because he was more personable and we spent more time with that branch of the family. Turn the clock ahead a few decades and the gift of a book was given to my mothers' second husband. It was "Band of Brothers", about the 101st Airborne 'Easy' company. My mom points out the the man on the end of the picture on the cover was uncle Forrest. Huuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I never knew he was in the war but now somewhat famous??!! All those years and I never heard a thing! Today he was at that air show and he and two others were to give a little talk about their actions on D-Day and beyond. Unfortunately we ran too late getting there and missed it but I did get a few minutes to talk to him here and there during the day. Many planes were sent up during the day and some simulated fighter manouvers. It came to me on several occasions throughout the day how difficult and dangerous and often fatal the engagements our service members face. The planes themselves could even be a danger. Looking at the cramped spaces on the planes, open wiring and connections and almost impossible missions these people are asked to perform is mind boggling and humbling and made me very thankful. We always need to remember the 'watchman on the wall'. I also met, shook hands and expressed admiration for Col. Gale Halverson. He was one of the Berlin Airlift pilots who manouvered his plane down a very trecherous corridor to land at the Berlin airport to bring in food for the isolated free Berlin inhabitants. He also started, what turned out to be a large program, of dropping candy from his plane over Russian occupied Germany. He was a gregorious man and humble about his activities. It was quite apparent that it meant so much to him to be able to give a gift to those children. On our way out we approached a very old man but still with the program from what we could see and my hubby said something like 'look, some 80 yr olds can still fit in their uniforms'. I turned to look and there in full dress whites sat a German Luftwaffe (sp?) officer definitely with the program. After a second I took a page from my near fearless hubbys' book and just went right over and said hello. He, very engagingly, stood up, shook my hand, introduced himself and I did the same along with hubby. We engaged in a few minutes of pleasant chatter, some of it a *very* short explanation of his wartime activities including being one of 1% of those Russian gulag POWs who managed to live to make it home. This man could have been one of the German pilots who could have been in the right place to shoot down my uncles plane............................................... Life can be very strange, intriguing, paradoxical and great. I'm glad I got to meet those men. Sorry to be so long but I just had to get this out. It was a wonderful day. AK in PA