http://www.airforcememorial.org/design/index.asp
When I saw this I couldn't help but think of my father. How proud I am and how much I appreciate the sacrifices he made (that I now understand) to protect our country (and Me, and YOU, or your parents). When I was a very young child my Dad would be away from home for 2-3 weeks at a time. When I asked Mom "Where's Dad?" she would say "He's on Alert." If we were lucky we got to go out to the alert shack on the flight line of an Air Force base that was bigger than the town it was locatated near and visit him for about 30 minutes in the evenings. Unless he was on a 24 hour mission flying over the North Pole or something.
My father, who passed away Dec. 23rd 1983, was a career Army Air Corp/Air Force officer. In other words, he was in the Air Force before there WAS an Air Force. And the Air Force was his life. He served from before WWII (1937 I think) starting out as a private in communications. From there he proceded to climb the ladder to Sgt. and was then selected for Officer Candidate school.
After graduating he started flying and became very proficient in navigation and bombing skills. Then WWII broke out. Because he was one of the best in his field he was assigned as an instructor for navigation and bombing which included training men to use the top secret Norden bomb sight used in the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator. (I, personally, am very thankful for that. I might not be here if he had to go to England)
After the war in Europe was over he was assigned to the Pacific theater flying in a B-29 Super Fortress against Japan in 1945. My Dad didn't like talking about this time in his life much. He was a Christian man. But in a conversation with my brother and sister shortly before he died he said he shot down a Japanese Zero during one of those missions. I don't think he was proud of that at all. He said most of the missions he flew were to drop leaflets asking the Japanese to surrender before the "Bomb" was dropped. Though he never mentioned it I suspect he was also involved in the incendiary bombings that burned a lot of Japanese cities to the ground.
At the signing of the Japanese surrender on the battleship Missouri, my Dad was in a B-29 flying escort over the ship.
After WWII he was discharged but decided to re-enlist and make the Air Force his career. Fortunately he didn't have to go to Korea to fight but spent the rest of his career defending the homeland and fighting the Cold War. Hours upon hours of missions flying in B-47's and later B-52's loaded with nuclear weapons ready to retaliate against any attack made to this country we live in. At the time I had no idea what he was really doing.
In 1963, after 26 years, he retired from his position as radar navigator/bombardier in a top rated B-52 crew at the rank of Major.
I wish he were here now to see this memorial.