Nobody was killed, largely due to the fact that the training bombs consisted of a couple pounds of dynamite and almost a hundred pounds of sand, to make them drop right, and the fact that one intrepid Sooner ran through the hail of aerial practice death and threw the main breaker for the square, removing the target for the bomber's crew. Also, this being small-town America in the '40s, the sidewalks had probably been rolled up and put away not long after sundown.
Phlegmmie and I stopped in the bustling metropolis (pop. 1,266) to snap a picture of the wry little bronze monument right on the town square:
Definitely an interesting historical tidbit, and something to toss back at the next person who sniffs "Well, America doesn't understand the horrors of war because it wasn't bombed in WWII!"Interestingly, being bombed by the U.S. Army, and far more recently than, say, Vicksburg at that, doesn't seem to have affected their patriotism much in Boise City:
The flyboys were running late for the Independence Day fireworks.
ReplyDelete> he next person who sniffs "Well, America doesn't understand the horrors of war because it wasn't bombed in WWII!"
ReplyDeleteHow quickly we forget!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_North_America_during_World_War_II#Fire_balloon_attacks
Just an extension of the "Red River Rivalry."
ReplyDeleteIt's a little discussed historical fact that more Americans have been killed by the US Air Force (and it's predecessor service, the US Army Air Force) than by all the other air forces of the world combined.
ReplyDelete"Patriotism?"
ReplyDelete'More like Stockholm Syndrome"
Here in South Carolina, the AAC bombed a local traffic circle several times in WWII. The target was an island in a local lake, 35 miles away.
ReplyDeleteReminds of the semi joke written by the guy who writes the "a Quick and Dirty Guide to War" series, about how the most important military treaty of the Post WWII period is a memorandom signed in Florida between the three dominant western military powers: USAF, USN, USArmy, agreeing on what sort of aircraft they could fly...
ReplyDeleteHas Obama visited Boise City to apologize yet?
ReplyDeleteConsidering some of the tornadoes that go through, the AAC probably wasn't considered that much of a threat
ReplyDeleteWV= 'inawls' "Inawls, it weren't that much of a show."
If the Army Air Corps had only stationed George Gobel farther west, this never would have happened.
ReplyDeleteIn this clip from the Tonight Show, Gobel comments on his WWII service around the 1:30 mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_6yWi6YBYY
Also be sure to keep any eye on Dean Martin and Gobel's drink while Gobel is telling his story.
Why don't stars show up on the Tonight Show with a plastic cup of beer anymore? :)
WV: spibled; Dean Martin spibled in George's beer while he wasn't looking.
USAF tried to nuke Albquerque in 1957. I guess they needed the practice.
ReplyDeleteGerry
Hope your feeling better.
Very much like a friend of mine who took his BUFF north of our border with Canada. At least he recognized the error of his and his Nav's way before he caused an international incident and beat feet home at a very low level. That's his story anyway. regards, Alemaster
ReplyDeleteMaybe this explains why they heavily recruit our high school football atheletes to OU and OSU and then crow so loudly about Oklahoma beating Texas in football.
ReplyDelete"Well, America doesn't understand the horrors of war because it wasn't bombed in WWII!"
ReplyDeleteWhat did the Imperial Japanese attack Pearl Harbor with, harshly worded letters?
(Sure, some torpedoes, but mostly bombs.)
Now, to give the original notional speaker credit, he's actually right in the general sense; no American city suffered significant bombing remotely resembling the pounding Britain, Japan, and Germany got.
The US has no cultural memory (thank God!) of cities being bombed to rubble by an enemy power.
(Unlike the original notional speaker's notional worldview, I think US Veterans have plenty of experience with the horrors of war, and have shared some of that with others who bothered to listen...)
Parts of the US have very clear memories, pictures even, of cities burnt, bombarded, and blasted into rubble during the Civil War. Richmond did not fare well during the siege against it, neither did Atlanta look very picturesque after being burnt. Sherman's March to the Sea was not a parade. And President Johnson's heavy-handed Reconstruction, followed by local Democrat/KKK actions, left many a family poorer and less home-enabled.
ReplyDeleteEven earlier than this, the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 saw devastation on the US urban scene.
And before that, we can look for the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, but likely not find it, and the Native Americans who were around then are also hard to find. Even the Viking landing places in Newfoundland are rather diminished in population and urban spread.
Your scale of memory just needs revision to extend past that of a living human.
That was a fun stop, and I can't believe I've driven right past that bomb 4 other times and didn't see it until you showed it to me.
ReplyDeleteToddG just made me laugh till I coughed, btw.
We do take our Red River Shootout rivalry seriously.
ReplyDelete--AOA
And we still damned well haven't forgotten!
ReplyDeleteTokenokie