Monday, July 30, 2007

Old warriors reunite...


William Guenther was a navigator in the 95th Bomb Group based at Horham, England, in 1944-45. He had a friend named Roger Rand, a pilot. The last William knew about Roger was that one day over Germany, he saw Roger's plane, in flames, spinning out of control toward the earth.

William, a retired university statistics professor, ordered my book, read it, and began e-mailing his memories from the war to me. On Friday, he told me about Roger, wondered in the e-mail what had become of him, and asked if I could find him. POWs are pretty well documented. I quickly found Roger's information, and also, through the wonders of the internet, found a current address and phone number for him. I sent the information to William.

On Saturday, I had an e-mail from William saying he had just talked with Roger for the first time in 63 years.