Maria, Pull the Trigger and Kill (a World War II adventure)

The Bombers

In the evening of June 6th 1944, I went to the flight debriefing together with my navigator. First, the flight commander, gave us a summary of the military situation in the Normandy: "Our troops have created a bridge head between Le Havre and Cherbourg. The price we paid is tremendous, first numbers indicate something like 5000-10000 dead allied troopers and about as many wounded. The task now, is to expand the bridge head. Very important in regards is that we will take a small bridge near Caen, which will support faster advancement and supply."

Now one by one each flight crew was called to provide a status report. When we were called, Keith gave a summary of our observations. Afterwards, I gave a summary of the damage to the plane and that it was grounded.

Immediately the Flight Commander gave me his orders: "Gonzales, the Chief Aviation Mechanic knows me damn well. Yes, I remove the grounding of your aircraft. In fact, you will fly out again after the debriefing, taking pictures of the bloody bridge at Caen. I need to know about every ditch around that bridge and whether it hosts a German gun or not. I need to know about the position of every Kraut in the area."

"Sir, in flight school we learned, safety first. --- ", I dared to object.

The flight commander interrupted me right the middle of my lecture: "Gonzales, your fine flight school instructors in their immaculate uniforms, go home after hours, sitting down with their wives at a nice dinner table and discuss, if they should have another child or not. In contrast, after this debriefing, I will dump a cheese sandwich down my smelling gob and smear the crumbs and the gravy away with the sleeves of my unwashed uniform while I compose the flight plan for tonight's bom'ing. Then I will give the crews the pre-flight briefing and sleep for a couple of hours. Then wake up around 3 in the morning again, analyze the latest military situation and compose the daytime bom'ing plan for tomorrow. Then do their pre-flight briefing and then the debriefing of the incoming bom'er crews, sleep a little bit and so forth. This all the while ground troopers are fighting the Krauts and many of them will never ever have the opportunity to sit down at a nice dinner table again, much less have a discussion about how many children they should have with their most lovely wives. This is war Gonzales!"

"Sir, the Chief Aviation Mechanic told me, that the pitch mechanism of the left engine will be fixed tomorrow morning. Sir."

"Yes Gonzales and the A-29 can still fly with only one engine, so you will fly out get me the pics of this blasted bridge and all the blasted Krauts, who let their assholes rip from the gases of the sauerkraut in synch with their Hitler Scythes around that bridge. Understood?"

Rocky mountain red Neck! There was nothing for me to add, I did not know the Krauts' assholes well enough as to object my Flight Commander and I was not interested in finding out: "Sir, yes, Sir."

"Good Gonzales, I see you learn quickly. --- And Gonzales --- next time, you come in with a broken plane, you report to me immediately. I need every airmen's dirty butt up in the air."

I was Mexican, my skin was light brownish, but this did not mean, my butt was dirty: "Sir, I don't have a dirty butt. Sir. Even though my skin is a bit darker than your's. Sir."

"Gonzales, have you taken a dump while flying an aircraft already?"

"Sir, no, Sir."

"OK, then we will wait for a week and then we will touch this most pressing topic again and you will have realized, that your skin color is irrelevant in regards." The other airmen around me were giggling, partly laughing and whispering to each other, which I was grateful for not being able to hear it.

When the last crew had reported we were dismissed, but when I was about to leave the room, the flight commander summoned us: "Gonzales and Odland!"

"Sir?"