By Dan Ruster
On Dec. 18, 1944, a B-17 bomber on a mission to Germany to bomb a synthetic petro-producing plant was shot down by German fighters. The B-17 crew had a crew of 10. The plane and its parts fell into the middle of a small town in Czechoslovakia. Three of the engines fell in the town square, the main part by the railroad tracks, and the bodies of seven of the 10 crew members were scattered throughout the town. Three of the crew parachuted out but only one, the pilot -- my father, 2nd Lt. S.P. Ruster -- survived. He was taken prisoner and spent the remainder of the war in a Stalag Luft 1 POW camp.
After the war, the people of this small town erected a cross as a memorial to the crew and plane that fell out of the sky onto their town. For 60 years, they have preserved this monument and, two years ago, replaced it with a new permanent monument. The new monument is still a cross, but with words on it to show the appreciation of the town. Part of the inscription reads, "We will never forget the flyers that liberated us and will always remember their sacrifices for us." The local Boy Scouts are responsible for the upkeep of the monument.
The ironies in what I have described are stark and disturbing. War is never pretty and collateral damage will always occur. How would the press of today report the crash of a plane on a small town in Iraq? Will the Iraqis 62 years from now appreciate our efforts to liberate them?
In our own country, we can't even honor World War II veterans or any veterans without controversies; and God forbid we try to honor them on public land with a cross and using the Boy Scouts to help preserve a monument to those who gave everything for our freedoms.
Some Americans should be ashamed of how they perceive our military and the extent they will go to undermine them and try to erase from our collective memory their sacrifices to help rid the world of evil tyrants like Hitler and Saddam Hussein. At least some people in the world are grateful and not ashamed to show it, even if it offends a few.
Ruster lives in Oklahoma City. His son Cole, a Marine, was wounded in Iraq last year when a roadside bomb destroyed his Humvee.
