Posted By Steve on May 23, 2006 at 17:39:41:
I just came across a poem I had read many years ago by Randall Jarrell called "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner."
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
God bless those who fought and those who fought and died. Our thanks will never be enough.