Coincidence connects veterans, Ridgewood High School graduates
NOVEMBER 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014, 2:48 PM
BY JODI WEINBERGER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Paul Grassey was in one of 23 B-24 bomber planes when about a dozen German ME 262 fighter jets attacked.
“We were supposed to bomb a couple of airfields and the Germans broke through,” Grassey said, retelling one of the more memorable of the 13 missions he flew during World War II.
It’s luck, he said, that’s gotten him to 91 years old, surviving through his time as Second Lieutenant with the 8th Air Force, which suffered more than 47,000 casualties and 26,000 deaths during the war.
Although the U.S. was able to “out-manufacture the Germans” with bomber planes, Grassey wasn’t sure how they would fare against the new jets.
https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/coincidence-connects-veterans-1.1128444