Billings WWII vet turned war memories into detailed map ..

Billings WWII vet turned war memories into detailed map
Lt. Marvin Metzler stands as ramrod straight at 90 as he did at 17 when he joined the U.S. Navy on July 7, 1937, four years before the United States entered World War II.
By the time his first hitch was over, the United States was at war and he spent another five years on Navy cruisers in the South Pacific, surviving five major battles.
The self-taught draftsman, who now lives at Westpark Village Retirement Community in Billings, turned his war memories into an incredibly detailed map of the major Pacific sea battles. A copy of Metzler's work hangs in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and President George H.W. Bush, a Navy aviator, has a personal copy.
"He wrote me a thank you note for the map. He was the one shot down in World War II," Metzler said.
A plane Bush was flying was shot down on Sept. 2, 1944.
The map, which details U.S. and Japanese ships in the major battles, took Metzler, a radioman, 2-1/2 years to draw.

 

Wait... the former president Bush was a ww2 pilot?

 

George Bush: World War II Navy Pilot » HistoryNet

 

That is George H.W. Bush (the father), not George W. Bush (the son) and second president Bush. It is the elder Bush who was the Naval aviator.

And BTW, Ray I was going to post this story myself since I read it in my own local rag this morning. But you beat me to it.

 

oh right, billings is your home town, clint..whats the snow predictions this year clint..

 

Well, we had a "non-snow" Halloween for the first time in about five years, but we did have a minor snow "flurry" a couple of days ago. I was driving down to buy some groceries, and as I was passing a small park I noticed these big flakes fluttering down.

They were quite pretty since they were coming down while I was driving in the sunshine! Of course they melted as soon as they touched anything, and that was that. We did have some accumulations in the high mountains, but not much for this late in the year.

The mid-Pacific water temp. always influences out snow-fall here in Montana, and this year is shaping up (according to people who monitor this over the decades) as a year with possible normal to slightly higher than normal snow fall. We need it, our snow-pack has been below normal for a decade or so, and our stream and river flow has suffered. Along with our trout fishing.

I'm personally hoping for a good "heavy" winter, we need the moisture.