We Came to Fight a War

NAVIGATOR TO PILOT:
“With two inboards out we’ll never make the Alps. We’re losing altitude and number four is leaking oil. We’d better head for Switzerland.”

PILOT TO NAVIGATOR: “We didn’t come here to go skiing, Dan. We came to fight a war. We’re going over. Get rid of everything in sight. If that’s not enough, throw Al out too.”

I’m Al—Alvin Kotler. I was the Radio Gunner on Bill Flynn’s B-17 that day.
It was one of the numerous life or death decisions Bill had to make during the course of our bombing missions out of Foggia Italy in ’44 and ’45.

We had flown through multiple walls of flak that morning over Austria. After dropping our payload, we got shot way off course and were limping back to Italy on our own. Once Bill made his decision, there was no more discussion. We jettisoned everything that wasn’t welded down out the bomb-bay—the 50 caliber machine guns, most of the radio equipment, flak suits, helmets, ammo—everything we could grab. The two outboards were still functioning so we had a chance—a slim one, but a chance.

The Italian Alps loomed before us like giant white sheets of death. If we were going to clear them it wouldn’t be by much. Looking down the open bomb-bay, I swore if I reached down I could have scooped up a handful of the purest snow on earth. Compared to the factory tainted snow in Malden, Massachusetts, it looked like heaven—or if we didn’t make it, hell . . .

"WE CAME TO FIGHT A WAR Now Available at Merriam Press.

Just wanted you folks to know that my new book, “We Came to fight a War” has just been released. See right off, I find myself telling you a lie. It isn’t my book. It’s my brother’s book—1st Lieutenant William (Bill) Flynn. It is Tech Sgt. Alvin E. Kotler’s book.

Let me start at the beginning. (I have heard it said that there are no beginnings—just a series of endings that look like beginnings. But I’ll leave that to the philosophers.)

My brother Bill was a B-17 Pilot with the 99th Bomb Group, 346th Squadron, out of Foggia Italy in ’44 and ’45. Alvin (Al) Kotler was his Radio/Gunner. As far as we have been able to determine, Al and Clark Slade, Tail Gunner, are the only surviving members of Bill’s crew. (Al and I would be ecstatic to be proved wrong about that.)

I didn’t know Al. We met at Bill’s wake last March, when I caught a glimpse of him pinning a pair of silver wings on Bill’s lapel and saluting the man mainly responsible for his survival over the course of multiple bombing missions over Germany, Austria. Italy, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

I overheard Al talking to Bill’s sons and daughters about some of the experiences he and their Dad shared—how they lived in tents in ankle deep mud and survived bomb runs at twenty eight thousand feet, through deadly fields of flak at 50 degrees below zero in un-pressurized aircraft—how they helped deal the finishing blow to Hitler’s war machine—and how he and Bill felt about the whole thing—the War—their Country—the enemy.

Later on, I got to talking with Al and told him that the world needed to hear their story—that it might be one of the last stories from the horses mouth out of the Air war in the European Theater. “Screw the world,” he said. “Give me a better reason.”
“For Bill,” I said. “The book will be dedicated to Bill Flynn.” There was a long pause. He looked me dead in the eye, and finally spoke. “Do you mean you’ll be my ghost writer?” “Not unless you’re the ghost,” I said. “It’s your story. It’s Bill’s story. You tell me. I write it like you tell it—just like it happened.

The long and short of it is this. Al and I met for a series of digital tapings, I put the story together, and it has taken the form of “We Came to Fight a War/The Story of a B-17 Radio Gunner and his Pilot—As remembered by Al Kotler and told to Jack Flynn."

If this were just another War story, I wouldn’t be here now, telling you about it. It is also about a 63 year-old injustice perpetrated by the U.S. Military on one of their own—on one of their best.
You see, on April, 15th, 1945, Bill Flynn and Al Kotler completed their 25th bombing mission. And on the 25th of May, 1945, Lieutenant William E. Flynn was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for “extraordinary achievement" in combat. In July of that same year, at a General Court Martial, he was accused of “buzzing,” convicted of manslaughter and the destruction of government property. People were intimidated and encouraged to lie and 20-year-old Lt Flynn was stripped of his rank and benefits, dishonorably discharged, and sentenced to hard labor at a Federal Prison in New York.

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S WEBSITE: “This book was written by Lt Flynn's radio gunner, Al Kotler, and Bill's brother, Jack Flynn. You will meet Bill, Al, and the rest of their crew, and fly with them on missions out of Foggia, Italy. Bill is no longer here to defend himself, so Al and Jack combined forces to present the full story of what really happened and to right a terrible wrong.”
You will find the book at Merriam Press. (Link to the right)

“Brother to brother, when it counted.
Friend to friend, to make things right.”

Jack Flynn

Who is Illegal?

We are a nation of immigrants. No one asked the Pilgrims for a green card.
How did you earn your citizenship?
I'll answer that.
It was, in most cases, given to you and required NOTHING of you. Now you fight like hell to stop others from getting it, while those others have struggled, worked and suffered to achieve it, enduring more than your worst nightmares could imagine. In my opinion, they have squatters rights. They have earned it through persistence and hard work, which is only to be respected, if not admired.
Like our own ancestors, they have overcome almost impossible odds to establish their lives and a future for themselves and their children.
Kicking out the babies??? Think of the brilliant minds we might send back—another Einstein, Gates, Lincoln or Ortiz. Think of the families that will be broken up and destroyed. Think of the dreams shattered? Would you like to see your own children deprived of their dreams—their future.

Pretty selfish way to live, isn’t it?

Yeah, "Shit Happens", but shouldn't you at least try to get out of the way of it?

Thought for the Day

Is the existence of God any more astounding or impossible than existence itself?

Love at First Sight

Love at first sight is like spotting a cameo in a crowd. You know at that moment that she is the one.

Haiku

blue moon cow grazing
on shimmering blue moon rocks
blue moon dust rises

I saw Jesus

I saw Jesus on a bus the other day. He looked tired. I said, “Hiya Jesus”.

“Don’t bother me,” he said. I’m heading for the beach—need to soak in the sun and surf. I can’t understand why all these people are still following me. I did my work. The message is out there. But still they want a piece of me. All they have to do is follow the word but they keep bugging me wanting more and more. Tell them to lay off will you. They’re too much. I just want some sun and surf.”

I looked out the bus window. It was raining hard. “It’s raining,” I said.

“So what,” Jesus said, “can’t you see the silver lining behind those clouds?”

Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.

Freud

Three things

There are three things men think they know everything about—sports, driving and sex.