Coincide, just the other day I found a bundle of letters my father had written home to his mother during WWII. He was the youngest of three boys and afraid the war would end before he got into it. My grandmother wouldn’t let him drop out of school and enlist as soon as he turned 17, made him graduate. All three boys were in, the oldest was Army in Europe. My father and the middle son Navy in the Pacific.
My godfather was US Army Air Corps. When, as kids, we’d ask what he did in the war he’d just say, “Oh, I was just a test pilot.” They Had no kids and I ended up with all his military records and memorabilia. “Just a test pilot…” I guess he said that because he was the squadron maintenance officer and maybe test flew all the repair jobs. Maybe he thought if he talked about all the air battles and subsequent decorations he’d sound like he was bragging.
