"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On 07 Mar 2004 14:26:33 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

HENRY V

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Here's an excerpt from the new book. I've got a quote from someone to
start each chapter and the one on Linebacker II uses Henry's famous
speech. (Other quotes range from the serious to the ribald.)

Chapter 9: Christmas Cards to Jane & Ho

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Henry V, Act IV Scene III.

It wasn't St. Crispin's day, it was about six weeks later near the end
of December, but those of us who were there will remember it with
nearly the same reverence that Henry's warriors recalled their moment
of glory. Whether gentlemen a-bed in the United States held much envy
of us is debatable, but for those who were there, we will take it upon
ourselves to hold their manhood cheap. And, we do.

Jack Van Loan had been in jail since 1967. It was now 1972 and when
asked about the view from his cell, he relates a tale. "It was a quiet
afternoon without too much going on when here comes a raid of some
kind which everyone in the room was ignoring. We had about 35-40 cons
in the room and down at one end playing bridge was Jim Young, an F-101
Recce driver and three other guys. The raid went on and finally it
became apparent when the guns stopped and the SAMs stopped that the
MiGs and the F-4s were dogfighting right over the top of the prison.
One of the tricks used by both our guys and the bad guys was when you
got an adversary trapped at dead six, drop down to tree top level and
haul ass right over the center of the city. That got everyone with an
AK shooting straight up and guess who got shot?? Of course, the number
two guy-the chaser . Well anyway, I am sitting there when all of a
sudden there is a brief whistling noise and then this F-4 goes by
going super plus and there is an enormous clap of noise with stuff
lifting off the ground, including me, and over where Jim and his guys
are playing bridge this huge piece of plaster about the size of a
blanket breaks loose and down it comes right over Jim. He doesn't even
look startled but has blood running down his face from some cuts on
his head. Without skipping a beat or even acknowledging the boom, the
blood or the blasted plaster, he leans forward and with no emotion
says"four hearts" That's when I realized we had been there too long!!"


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8



Now that's a story!! One hell of a one I might add!!

T3