Happy Veterans Day to all who serve and have served! As an old Air Force guy, this is one of my favorite pictures from one of my favorite stories. On the left, you see Master Sergeant Chris Lawson, who at the time, served in the Defense Attache Office at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. This shot is from a memorial ceremony he attended for German soldiers from World War I who died in what was then Palestine. I thought there was a certain irony in German military being honored in Israel, but that was a different war… at a different time. I was lucky to follow him around for a day, and he showed me his work and his life for him and his family in Israel. Wonderful story… great chance to use audio and video together… and a great opportunity to show how the Air Force serves in places you’d never think about.

And this picture is to honor those who served so long ago. In this picture, in the hand of the man in the lack hat, is the dog tag of a U.S Army Air Force sergeant presumed dead when his bomber crashed near Furth, Germany during World War II. The people who found some of his remains were American and Canadian military and Germans who volunteered to dig up the old crash site. An old German woman told us how she was out in the potato field when the plane crashed just yards from where she was working. All but one crew member got out of the aircraft, and the woman remembers looking at him in the eye as he struggled in vain to get out of the burning wreckage. She said an explosion sealed his fate. Word is that the rest of the crew was rounded up by the SS and shot in the town square… although not many of the locals wanted to talk about it.
I know I’ve posted these pictures before, but I thought it was important to honor vets, past and present, once again.

“I’m just saying…”