Happy Father's Day!

First, I want to say Happy Father's Day to my dad!
In honor of Father's Day I wanted to share a story my dad just told me during our short visit in Atlanta.
It isn't about him, it is about my grandfather, Papa Don.

My grandfather always had a story, but he did very little talking about his time in WWII.
It always seemed like an unfinished puzzle. We knew he worked as a bombers mechanic and flew with his plane, went to Scotland, met his grandmother in Scotland and never had a failed mission, ever.
That was it in a nutshell.
My dad has started doing some digging on the Internet and found a woman who has been collecting history about my grandpa's squad for years.

Here is what she had to say....
As for how good your dad was at his job, I found an entry in the 576th Sqdn
history that said the 576th Sqdn Engineering Section "established an
enviable record by keeping all aircraft in commission from 1 July to 21
July 1944, when one plane was kept out for a test flight. During this
period, 63 aircraft flew on operations." Furthermore, "During the month of
July the Squadron averaged 98.5% of all its planes in commission with a
Group average of 95.3%. And aircraft of the 576th averaged 78.5 hours
flying time for the month compared with the Group average of 74.1 hours."

The 576th history for April 1945 is where I saw that your dad and M/Sgt
Arthur Madonna were awarded Bronze Stars during
"Salute the Ground Man Week."
It said the 576th Engineering section "set another record by
dispatching 278 aircraft between 28 Feb and 25 Apr with no aborts for
mechanical reasons."

The Bronze Star....one little detail he forgot to mention!
My grandpa has been gone for nine years....I wish I would have had the chance to say how proud I was of him while he was still here. But, I didn't, so I will take this time now to honor him on Father's Day!
I do miss him on days like this.