The bugle sound woke him from his restless sleep. Hadn’t he only just closed his eyes? His body rigid, his muscles tight and aching once again. “Once again” – he half smiled at the thought. His smile darkened as he pondered the fact that it had taken 7 long months and countless close encounters with mortality just to reach this day. Even worse was knowing that it wasn’t over.

He didn’t know whether to feel lucky or cursed to have survived 24 missions down the belly of the Luftwaffe beast.. “24 missions down” he thought. 24 missions that had taken the lives of most everyone he had known in this perpetually rain soaked, seemingly god forsaken field of dirt and ashphalt. How many times had he seen the boys he had shared this camp with only hours before, succumb to a fiery twisted and inhumane death as he sat powerless to help them. Their last horrible moments etched into his mind, forever, he was sure.

His thoughts continued to spiral as he left his barracks to join his crew and preflight his plane.