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Our speaker Howard Cain weaved the international events before and during WWII to tell his story. He is the son of Russian Immigrants and was raised on the South side of Chicago. In 1944, he was a 17 year-old senior in high school. With both of his older brothers already fighting, he knew two things - one that his number would come up in the draft at some point, and he would be placed in the infantry when that happened. But, if he volunteered, he would have a choice of which branch he could serve in. He wanted to fly or be working with planes. The snag? He wasn't 18 - he would need his parents' signatures. So, he went to the recruiter's office, brought home the form, found his birth certificate, signed his mother's name with his right hand and signed his father's with his left and return to the recruiter. Suffice it to say, his parents were not pleased. Soon Howard found himself in basic training at Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi. He learned to become a flight engineer for a B29. He was assigned to the 416th Bombardiers in Okinawa. Our history segment outlined the development of the nuclear bomb and the race to beat Germany and Russia, known now as the Manhattan Project. When FDR died in April of 1945, it is just a month before victory in Europe is declared. When Truman takes office, he learns FDR had kept the knowledge of the bomb and it's testing from Truman. As the focus turns onto the war in the pacific, Truman learns that with the 3 million men fighting there, the casualty rate could possibly reach 50%. That was completely unacceptable. Negotiations with Japan hit a snag when the Japanese would not let the U.S. try Hirohito for war crimes. To the people of his country he was a hero. Truman made the decision to use the bomb on Hiroshima and Kokura, which was a weapons factory. On August 6th, the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The next bomb, slated for Kokura on the 9th, was changed to Nagasaki because there were too many clouds over Kokura and the tail gunner aboard that plane reported to the pilot they were taking ground fire. As if that weren't stressful enough, they had used up a lot of fuel flying over the targets and had about a half an hour of fuel left by the time they landed in Okinawa. One month later, Howard's plane was ordered to survey the damage of the two cities. His voice cracked when he shared what he saw and felt. "What I saw was a vastness of nothing. Nothing was standing. Nothing moved. There were no people, cars or rubble. Just nothing. He said he once read a book about Vietnam and one soldier said about his time in that war, "I hope I go to heaven because I've done my time in hell." Howard has his own version of that, "I hope I go to heaven because I've seen hell." A master storyteller, Howard is retired from Leo Burnett Advertising Agency where he was a Senior Vice President Management Director. He is affiliated with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Charter Member of WWII Museum New Orleans, a participant of Honor Flight Chicago , Jewish War Veterans, and the American Legion. |
