Seventy-six years ago, a young aviator found himself not in the cockpit of his aircraft, but rather in the 1940s version of a packraft. Using his arms as paddles and with increasing desperation, he was trying to get away from land and into the Pacific Ocean.
Minutes before, he had been flying a torpedo bomber that was ablaze from enemy fire. Despite this, he continued his run and attacked the target. Immediately afterwards, he and his crew bailed out.
A total of nine U.S. aircrew floated safely to Earth that day. Only one would survive. Our pilot landed in the water and grabbed the raft. Thanks to covering fire from his still airborne companions, he successfully entered the vast Pacific in his tiny craft. His name was George Herbert Walker Bush.
His eight companions were taken prisoner by the Japanese. Captured. They were tortured and killed either by beheading or by “bayonet practice.” However, there was more. Four of them were butchered, literally, and parts of their livers and leg muscles fed to the Japanese officers as a special treat.
The current occupant of the White House called George H.W. Bush a “loser” because he was shot down.
In the mind of the current occupant of the White House, the eight men who were captured, tortured, executed, and for some, cannibalized, are people that he would not like. He only likes those who aren’t captured, he has said.
Why would anyone vote for such a person?
Mark Douglas
Fairbanks
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