Into “The Wild Blue”
The sacrifices of so many are worth remembering.
I decided to take the plunge into my squadron’s book club. The current book under discussion is “The Wild Blue” by Stephen E. Ambrose, which takes a deeper look into the lives of B-24 Liberator crews - their story before joining the Army Air Corps, their training, and into their time flying in the hostile skies during World War II. I’ve been listening to the book on Audible and am a big fan so far. Below are my takes on two discussion questions…I recommend the book and it’s a solid audiobook as well.
How does understanding the context of everyday life in the era before WWII inform us today?
I’m always struck by how patriotic Americans were during this time. The Great War wasn’t far in the rearview mirror, and many had keen memories of the struggle - sending our young men overseas to fight and die against the Central Powers in support of our European allies - and I imagine they were reflecting on this as the likelihood of another war loomed into the late 1930s and beginning of the 1940s. People corresponded by letter, sometimes via telegraph and phone, and the spread of information ran at a different pace. Press cycles weren’t 24/7/365, and I get the impression that people were invested in their communities in a more direct way than we find today. Even when I take off the rose-colored glasses and see the ongoing social struggles and imperfections of our American history, I still see so much pride in our country tied directly with trust in God and pursuit of societal betterment.
It seems like so many stories from this era, including those in this book, are from normal folks who had aspirations and dreams, such as flying, but also felt the tremendous weight of joining in the fight against the Axis. There was the romanticism of aviation, which was relatively speaking still a newer concept for many Americans, and undoubtedly contributed to many of the pursuits of the young men in this book. There was also the very palpable feeling of the building need to stop the spread of the forces of evil across the globe, especially when America’s allies were being pushed to the brink. I get the sense that most didn’t want war, but millions were ready to go when their country, and frankly the world, depended on the United States to rise to the occasion.
Another theme I always find striking is the earnest desire to go and fight the war. I remember pining for my own chance to deploy, and I finally got my first taste of a combat sortie a few years ago. Obviously my deployed missions were a far cry from the horrors of being on a World War II Liberator crew - we weren’t being shot at, the rates of attrition were largely due to accidents or hostile fire against helicopters, etc. But I got my chance to contribute, and I think that’s what these guys wanted to do, desperately. You can tell this is the case when we learn examples of refusing the chance to be instructors state side in order to go overseas, the idea that “my brother is there, so I should be too.” Without getting too in the weeds on societal issues of the modern American life, I must say I admire this tenacity and desire to serve the greater good via the missions at hand.
How might this explain the general attitude of the soldiers and Airmen as well as the people on the home front and how they viewed their sacrifices during the War?
I think the sacrifice was so vast as it touched most Americans in some way. During the war, a cousin might have been killed in action in Tarawa, or your uncle became a POW when he was shot down, or you yourself were drafted 6 months ago and now on a troop transport chugging across the English Channel. For others, mom built fighters in the new factory across town while dad’s company shifted from new Ford sedans to Sherman tanks. Kids collected recyclables and “victory gardens” were a thing. To our nation’s advantage, women joined the ranks by the thousands and contributed tremendous effort toward critical mission sets.
I get the sense of a tremendous weight of effort that just went into action in an unstoppable way. Since Americans across the board were connected so directly to the fight, we were willing to scrimp and save and sacrifice. If people had to ration their Amazon orders today, the TikTok meltdowns would never end!
I don’t believe that the Greatest Generation was perfect - we are all flawed human beings, after all - but I think people really understood what was at stake. The entire nation was mobilized, and having less butter at dinnertime didn’t seem like the end of the world.
-MJVW