His Last Ride

Imagine, if you will, 69 yrs ago. A young man, by the worlds standards, but a man that held more responsibility than most people do in their life time. Capt. Bud Koorndyk was 20 years old when he started to pilot combat missions in a B-24 Liberator, a 20 year old that was responsible for the lives of 9 other young men...

When asked about being only 20 years old and being on the other side of the world, flying missions that you were never sure you were going to come back from, Grandpa said "Oh well, we never thought about that, it was just what we were doing." I wonder how some of these men did it. How they stared death in the face with each mission, how they overcame the fear of dying. Amazing... Grandpa flew 32 missions before his final mission on D-Day.

He went through 3 B-24's, his first plane was named Lucky Tiger #1. He flew 4 missions with that plane. After the fourth mission he had a day off. Another crew took his plane up for a mission, they never came back. Grandpa said that they where shot down in Germany. The whole crew was killed. His second plane was Lucky Tiger #2. He flew about 10 missions in that plane before....

The plane "got all shot up." There was over 200 holes in the plane and engines. Grandpa knew that they wouldn't make it back home. They crossed the channel and started looking for the first English airfield that they saw. They found an airfield, Grandpa told his crew to "brace themselves." He was going to be landing the plane on it's belly...there was no landing gear. Grandpa chose the grass next to the runway because it was softer than the runway. He described it like this... "I told my crew to brace themselves, I brought the plane in on it's belly, it spun around and around the bottom of the plane was ripped apart the propellers hit the ground and were torn off, it sounded like the world was coming to an end. But then we all climbed out OK... I didn't lose one crew member. We stayed one day in England, the next day we were flown back to our home base and started flying missions again."

The crew of the Lucky Tiger received their 3rd and final plane. This is the plane they flew on D-Day. Over 300 bombers flew that day dropping 13,000 bombs. As I type this I am listening to the radio report by George Hicks giving a play by play of what happened that day. This was a pre-television era, the radio is how Americans got all their breaking news. I am not ashamed to say that I have tears falling down my face as I listen. Over 9,000 allied troops were either killed or wounded on D-Day. If you would like to listen to the radio broadcast click here.

You know there are times that I am driving and a young "man" flies by me with his music up, his seat laying all the way down, he can hardly see over the steering wheel. I am sure his pants are around his knees, usually bopping his head to the beat of the music and I think, what a punk. I know that I am stereotyping, but not so nice thoughts go through my head, and I think that if by chance we would need that young man to defend our county, our country would be lost. He can barley drive a car safely, let alone be responsible for an aircraft with 9 other men in it... amazing really, that there was so many of these young men, that acted well beyond their years. They risked their lives (and lost their lives) for the safety of this country.

As Grandpa walked his way to the B-25, a plane so much like the one he flew many years ago on all his missions, I wonder what is going through his mind... does he think about his missions... does he remember his crew that have all passed on but one... What is he thinking... what is he feeling... or is he excited to be going up for his last ride??