The Things Our Fathers Saw Vol. II - The War In the Air

The Things Our Fathers Saw: Vol. II - The War in the Air

During World War II, LOOK Magazine featured a small upstate New York community as a model of patriotic life on the home front. Decades later, a history teacher set out to find the veterans from this "Hometown, USA" who fought in the skies over Europe. These men, shaped by the Great Depression and hardened by war, shared their powerful firsthand accounts of combat, brotherhood, captivity, redemption, and the lasting effects of the war—a side of their stories that the magazine couldn’t tell.

By the end of 2018, fewer than 400,000 WWII veterans remain, out of the 16 million who served. Yet their stories are fading from public memory.

As a nation, it’s our responsibility to reconnect with this remarkable generation—ordinary Americans who gave everything and asked for nothing. Their legacy reminds us of what we stand for and inspires us to carry their values forward.

Quotes from the book:

"I spent a lot of time in hospitals. I had a lot of trouble reconciling how my mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage] from the telegram she opened, saying I was shot down and] "missing in action." I didn't explain to her the fact that 'missing in action' is not necessarily 'killed in action'. You know? I didn't even think about that. How do you think you feel when you find out you killed your mother?" --B-24 bombardier

"I was in the hospital with a flak wound. The next mission, the entire crew was killed. The thing that haunts me is that I can't put a face to the guy who was a replacement. He was an 18-year old Jewish kid named Henry Vogelstein from Brooklyn. It was his first and last mission. He made his only mission with a crew of strangers." --B-24 navigator