[Blindvet-talk] A true hero!Fw: The last mission.............

[MisterAdvocate at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/1/2011 5:59:17 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
nfbnj at yahoo.com writes:

Dwight, a true hero.  
Read the following and forward to  others.
Best,
Joe Ruffalo
 
Keep believing.  Keep dreaming.  Keep  learning
Let's work together.  Let's make a difference!
Joseph J.  Ruffalo 
President, National Federation of the Blind of New  Jersey
Phone:  973-743-0075
Please visit our State and National Web  Sites
_http://www.nfbnj.org_ (http://www.nfbnj.org/) 
_http://www.thruoureyes.org_ (http://www.thruoureyes.org/) 
_http://www.blindchildren.org_ (http://www.blindchildren.org/) 
_http://www.nfb.org_ (http://www.nfb.org/) 
Email: 
_nfbnj at yahoo.com_ (mailto:nfbnj at yahoo.com) 






A day before his last mission aboard a B-17 bomber in World  War II, 
Norbert Swierz, a 23-year-old gunner, who had  already survived the ditching of 
his first B-17 in the North  Sea in the summer of 1943, sat down on his bunk 
and jotted  down a poem for his mother back in Michigan.
 
'I go so gladly to my fate,  whatever it may be,
 
That I would have you shed no tear for me,  
Some men must die, that others must be free,  
And only God can say whom these shall  be.'
 
The next day, Sept. 6, 1943, "Skeets" Swierz and the rest of the  crew of 
the B-17 nicknamed "Bomb Boogie" took off from their base in  England ..... 
but didn't make it back. Shot down and taken prisoner,  Swierz would spend 
the rest of his war days in a German POW  camp. 
This year it had been almost 70 years since Norbert Swierz, 90, of  Palm 
Harbor, stepped aboard a B-17 bomber.  
This time was better than the last, a combat mission over Nazi  Germany. 
"This one is a joy ride all the way," Swierz said 
Swierz was invited to ride along as the Collings Foundation Wings  of 
Freedom Tour brought two vintage bombers from Kissimmee to St.  
Petersburg/Clearwater airport for a flying-museum exhibit that runs  through Sunday. 
The skies were cloudy and vaguely threatening, but nothing like  Swierz's 
combat flight experience in 1942, when he served as a  top-turret gunner 
during 14 combat missions in Europe. 
"For the first time in my life I get on a B-17 knowing that no  one's going 
to be taking a potshot at me," Swierz said. 
During his first combat mission, Swierz said, his plane was so  badly 
damaged from enemy fire that crew members had to throw out  everything that moved 
just to maintain altitude. 
That included Swierz's parachute. 
Eventually, the pilot had to ditch the bomber with its 10-man crew  in the 
North Sea, amid towering waves. 
"In a storm, in the middle of a mine field," Swierz said. 
"It doesn't get any better than that." 
Swierz was badly wounded by a 20mm cannon round fired from an enemy  
fighter plane and credits the cold water with keeping him from  bleeding to death 
until rescuers arrived. 
His crew didn't know they were in a mine field. 
They complained about the slow progress of the rescue crew as it  
zig-zagged toward them. 
After three weeks in the hospital, and a couple more weeks  recuperating, 
Swierz returned to his turret gunner's position for more  missions, most of 
them aboard a B-17 called "Bomb Boogie." 
At the end of one bombing run, the pilot ditched the disabled plane  at the 
foot of England's White Cliffs of Dover because he couldn't  gain enough 
altitude. 
On Swierz's 14th mission, his luck ran out during a punishing bomb  run 
over Stuttgart, Germany. 
"A burst of flak through the bomb bays and we had to bail out,"  Swierz 
said. "That's when I was captured." 
Swierz spent the next 22 months as a prisoner of war at Stalag 7  and 
eventually Stalag 17, the camp that inspired a motion picture and  the TV comedy 
Hogan's Heroes. 
Swierz said the real thing wasn't much like either of those  Hollywood 
depictions. Life was tough for American prisoners and far  worse for Russian 
prisoners nearby. 
During his captivity, Swierz said, he escaped three times, twice  for a 
matter of hours. 
"I guess I felt it was my duty to get back and fly again. I loved  flying 
in those things." 
His most successful bid for freedom lasted six weeks. 
He and fellow POW's managed to trek from Austria to a location near  the 
Yugoslavian border before their capture. 
Freedom finally came when units of Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army  arrived 
and the German army surrendered. 
At 90, Swierz shows little swagger as he recounts his combat  exploits. 
He doesn't remember fear as much as regret at seeing five dozen  airplanes 
shot down during one mission, 60 aircraft and 600 men. 
He received medals for his wounds, his valor and the effectiveness  of his 
gunnery. 
He was credited with three kills and two probable kills. 
His reaction to the B-17 ride, so many years later? 
"This one was a joy ride all the way."