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Carrying Fire

Discussion in '☆☆ New Recruits ☆☆' started by B-17 Son, Feb 22, 2015.

  1. B-17 Son

    B-17 Son New Member

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    http://carryingfire.blogspot.com/
    https://www.facebook.com/carryingfire

    I am a World War II researcher and my mission has been mainly to find out about my father. His name was Lt. Donald R. Christensen and he was a B-17 pilot with the 8th Air Force in England during World War II. He was stationed with the 398th Bomb Group at Nuthampstead. England, and was a member of the 603rd Squadron. He and all but one of his crew men were killed on March 2, 1945, when the tail was shot off of his aircraft by enemy fighters the plane crashed near Slany, Czechoslovkia. I was two and a half years old

    I have been haunted by the loss of my father all my life, and after 70 years I still grieve. For the last 25 years or more I have been sporadically combing through old papers and photographs, military records, books relating to the 8th Air Force, and talking with many veterans of the 398th BG. I have been wanting to tell his story for a long time, and the 70th anniversary of his death seems like an appropriate time to get off my duff and honor his memory in words and pictures.

    I have been been on this quest most of my life, but more seriously in the last 25 years or so. Now I'm ready to write about it.

    Thank you for visiting my page and taking the time to read this material. I welcome all comments.

    To see a slideshow that I made honoring the 70th anniversary of my father's fatal plane crash, see here.

    The title "Carrying Fire" is taken from Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, in which Sheriff Ed Tom Bell talks about his own father. “I had two dreams about him after he died. I don’t remember the first one all that well. But the second one it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin through the mountains of a night. Goin through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin. Never said nothing. He just rode on past and he had this blanket wrapped around him and he had his head down and when he rode past I seen that he was carryin fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. About the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin on ahead and that he was fixin to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there.”
     

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  2. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    I've been looking into your blog. You have made a nice one. This forum has a good reputation for helping people out. The members here will surely help you in your search. I wish you all of the best luck B-17 Son.

    Also welcome to this forum :cheers:
     
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  3. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Welcome to the forums!
     
  4. KJ Jr

    KJ Jr Well-Known Member

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    Thank for sharing your story. Welcome the place.
     
  5. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    Welcome and thank you for honoring your father
     
  6. B-17 Son

    B-17 Son New Member

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    Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I'm new at this so I hope I don't mess up too badly.
     
  7. thingimibob

    thingimibob New Member

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    Such a shame that he died so close to the end of the war in Europe, sorry for your loss.
     

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