Aero-News: Quote of the Day

ANN's Quote of the Day usually derives from current news, though we reserve the right to pick quotes out of history that have a bearing on the day's events and issues.

Sometimes, you'll find them timely and in keeping with the content of the day's news... and sometimes, they'll just be thought-provoking.

Reader suggestions and comments are welcome... and if particularly intriguing, timely, or poignant, may themselves become future Quotes of the Day.

Let us hear from you, folks!

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"They were brave and not so brave, strong and not so strong, true believers and skeptical doubters. They went to war in Mustangs, Liberators (below), Dauntlesses; A-1s and F-86s and B-26s; O-2s and F-100s and UH-1s. They're still going to war in F-16s, F-18s, H-60s. They hauled trash in C-47s, and today their grandsons, and granddaughters -- there's a change for you -- haul trash in C-17s. They taught flying in muscular Stearmans, lithe T-38s, comical TH-55s.

"They breathed dry oxygen through chapped, cold lips at 29,000 feet, or fetid jungle air through runny noses at treetop level.

"They were the navigators, bombardiers, gunners, and guys in back. They were crew chiefs, avionics techs, armorers, weather guessers.

"They were the guys on the ground, living in holes and looking at the sky and praying our planes would come on time.

"They were warriors. They are veterans. What they have done is written in the pages of history.

"May we earn this."

Source: Former ANN Contributor Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien, writing to commemorate Veterans Day.

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