I wrote about my peculiar fascination with a particular bit of history here a few years back. In August of 1943, a bunch of American planes flew a bombing mission to the oil fields of Romania. What made this mission unique was that they flew at low-level—where most raids were flown at 20,000 feet, this one was at treetop height. I’ve always been interested about aviation history, and loved planes, but there was something about this story that stuck with me. Since I’ve been online, I’ve searched for information on the subject, and found some places where it’s discussed in great detail by some of the men who flew the mission.

As Jen and I were leaving Baltimore last friday, we stopped at the Giant to pick up some snacks. On our way out I spied an older gentleman with a baseball cap sitting on a bench by the exits. Passing by, I noticed he had a 98th Bomb Group patch on the bill—one of the main groups involved with the bomb raid. Although we were in a bit of a hurry, I stopped and asked him about the patch, and his eyes lit up. After a few minutes of talking with him, it turned out he wasn’t on the August raid (he missed it due to illness) but he eventually flew 37 missions—no small feat in thse days. Jen and I sat with him for a fascinating half hour, and he invited us to stop up to his house to look through his collection of papers and photos from the war, and talk about history. I can’t wait.