WWII Airmen Meet for the First Time Since 1945
The World War II Memorial, dedicated to the greatest generation.
As the car rolled up the long drive to James Hirst's farmhouse, he walked down the path to meet the man who once was his flight engineer on their B-24.
They flew 20 missions together, bombing Germany in 1945 from their base in Italy. Until this Veterans Day, they hadn't seen each other since the war ended.
"Hey, hey, there's old pilot!", yelled Martin Gonzalez, as he got out of the car, ending his journey from California.
"You've still got that chubby face!" answered Hirst, as the two men embraced and slapped each others backs.
Hirst, who was the pilot even though he was only 19, had found most of his crewmen over the years, but he'd never connected with Gonzalez, who was the senior man on the crew, at age 22.
"We were one of the few crews, really, that went over there as a crew and come back as a crew," said Gonzalez, who found Hirst on the internet at Central Connecticut State's Veterans History Project website. Hirst's niece Eileen directs the project.
"We had a real good crew," said James Hirst. "In fact, I swear we had one of the best crews in the Air Force."
He hasn't been in touch with any of the other crew members in at least five years, he said, so he and Gonzalez may be the last to survive.
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