There are greater truths, sometimes.

Well, this isn't Monty Python - I like monty Python.
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But this isn't fantasy, either -
I get to excerpt my own book - how wierd.

Joe



One time I’m coming back from a mission and I see this glider. It was a funny looking thing. It looked like an airplane, sort of, but it didn’t have any propeller. No propeller –it’s a glider, right? You know, a glider is not a kill. It’s just like shooting a truck or something. You don’t get credit for a kill. I remember – in tactics - in an engagement, you want to try and come in out of the sun from behind and high. Yeah, right – so is the other guy. The question is who sees who first. So this guy was going in for a landing, and I’m right on his ass. And I made a dive straight for it and got him. One pass, maybe five seconds. He caught fire right away and he burned up. I thought that was strange—I never saw a glider burn up like that. I saw him, the German pilot, just burning up. I think he was a young kid. Anyway, I got back and debriefed. It was just a glider, I thought. No big deal.
Later, I got called in to see the CO and there's this intelligence guy there - special debriefing. I’m thinking what the hell is this about? They said they saw the gun films. When the guns fire, pictures get shot, and the tail guy shoots pictures - boy, everybody shoots pictures. They wanted to talk about the “kill”. I’m saying, “What the hell are you talking about, was Hitler on that glider, or what?” They said you shot down a jet fighter (an ME-262). I said, “Oh, hell no, I shot down a glider.” No propeller—so it’s a glider. They said that no, it’s a new kind of fighter—a jet fighter. They went on about it. You know, it’s a lot faster, has thirty-millimeter cannons on it, blah, blah, blah. I’m stunned. I’m just looking for the words. Finally I said, “Well, when were you planning to tell us (the pilots) about it?” They said, and I’ll never forget this, “Well, we didn’t want to scare you guys.” God, they could have warned us and they deliberately chose not to - I still can’t believe they did that - unbelievable. That ME-262 was a hell of a thing. It had swept wings - an eerie looking thing, at least back then.

Can you just imagine siting there and hearing that?