FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS . . .

    
   "No one could measure what was lost when a man died before his time--the dreams he'd never dream,the children he'd never have, the house he'd never build, the work he'd never do."
   Charles F. Price, Hiwassee: A Novel of the Civil War,  page 32)

    He was killed on his sister's 17th birthday. He had turned 23 eight days earlier.  He died in what the family was told was the first-ever crash of a B-29 bomber in World War II.  Reportedly, this was their last training run before being deployed for combat.  I remember him in his uniform, home on visits.  Somewhere in scattered family picture albums is an array of photographs of Bob . . . as a young boy, as a soldier, with his girlfriend.  In local parlance, he was "good looking" and she, beautiful.  What kind of beautiful children might they have made together !

With Gretchen, 1943-44

    My cousin recently secured some declassified documents pertaining to the crash.  There is strong circumstantial evidence that the crash need not have occurred.  (The training flight had been interrupted to allow one officer who was "ill" to deplane.) Possibly, some "hotdogging" occurred by whomever was piloting the aircraft. He reportedly had family and friends living in the small town where the plane went down.  Flying much too low--only 200 feet, he hit a tree limb or some other obtrusion.  Everyone on board and two persons on the ground died.  After reading the military's documents, my cousin wrote: "the insinuation [in the report] is that the plane was 'buzzing' the town or certain houses around [the town] where there lived relatives and friends of the Co-Pilot. . . The official report charges the Pilot with the accident and points to the cause . . . Pilot carelessness; Direct Cause -Violation of Flying Regulations (flying below authorized altitudes) . . . .We may draw our own conclusions from the reports, eyewitness accounts and other related history associated with this incident, but we may never know for sure if this crash was one of those unfortunate losses caused by intentional disregard for regulations,or a mechanical failure with the aircraft."

 (My Uncle Bob, front row, second from left, with crew of B-29. 
                           All but one died in the crash.)

    I remember him in his uniform, home on furlough . . .a new word for my youthful vocabulary.  Once when he had spent an overnight with our family, I saw him stoop down to comb his hair by a reflection in a kitchen cabinet.  And I have a mental picture of his standing on the wrap-around porch of his parents' house.  Just snippets.  I was six and a half when we received the news.  Mrs. Tunstall, the wife of dad's employer, came to visit mom.  She talked about this and about that and at last came out with the news. . . a phone call had been received.  (At the time, we had no telephone in our house.) Mom's tears resounded in my ears and I grasped the meaning of the message and was inconsolable.

   In time a flag covered coffin arrived and, as was the regional custom in those times, was placed in a large room in his home.  His oldest brother locked the door, opened the casket, only to find a small metal box.  The army sent an escort ---his name was Robert Cassidy --and he was from Philadelphia.  For some time thereafter, some family members maintained contact with him.

    Funny, what a six year old remembers . . . standing in the vestibule of the small Methodist church in the village and seeing Mr. and Mrs. Tunstall and a friend, Helen Penny.  Then there was the military internment with the bugle and rifle salute.  Even now, when I hear Taps I have a kind of flashback. I heard my grand-parents crying audibly when they received the flag. In time a banner with three stars, including a gold one, appeared in the front window.

    Some days after the funeral, his older brother, Lewis, who was stationed in the Aleutian Islands, was driven up to the family home in an  army jeep - - -another sight that I witnessed, though I remember nothing of what occurred thereafter, including the duration of his visit.  As I noted in an earlier post, his youngest brother enlisted in the Navy soon thereafter.

    Were he now living, he would be almost 92 years old . . .a member of what Tom Brokaw called 'the Greatest Generation'.  LOTS of men and women died in that war . . .and subsequent conflicts.  So far, no feasible alternative to warfare has been durable.  Recently, I heard on NPR that, technically, there has been no year since WW II when the US was not in war.  As the quote above makes clear, the cost of all that in human terms -for all of us- is inestimable.  "And, the beat goes on . . ."

      Twenty-three !!  Development of the pre-frontal cortex of the human brain ---the so-called CEO of the brain that is responsible for cognitive analysis and abstract thought, i.e., maturity -- is barely completed by that time.  Yet, consider all that those people endured and what they achieved.  But, come to think of it, I wonder if that might account for the lapse in judgment of the person flying that airplane that night.  

     This post is not intended as an anti-war diatribe.  I am reasonably optimistic and idealistic but it can be a dangerous world (duh !).  No, my intended focus is much more specific.  Who would Bob have been, what 'gifts' might he provided the world and his own family ?  And, as my fraternity brother from another time, Charles Price, wrote this is true for all the "Bob's" who did not return.  In that way, while this is about one family's loss, there are 'universals'.

    My cousin concluded: "The men of the ... Crew are not listed as  combat casualties, but they were training for combat, so they probably should be.  They were just as young, just as patriotic, and unfortunately just as dead."

                                              (1921-1944)


     Satchel