Yes, my father looked like Ben Affleck, or maybe Ben looks like him!
In November 1942, at the age of 19, my father, Fred Vertus Brandt, enlisted in the U.S. Army’s Aviation Cadet program, receiving his wings with Class 44B at Moore Field, Mission Texas, in February 1944. He was selected to become a fighter pilot, went through P-47 training in Richmond, VA, and flew the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt with the 512th Fighter Squadron in Europe during World War II.
Dad was wounded while flying P-47 44-33010 on 24 February 1945 when, while bombing a rail yard near Dusseldorf, a huge explosion threw debris into the path of his Thunderbolt. A brick or other debris came through his windscreen, cutting his face and lodging a shard of metal or glass in one eye. The Initial Battle Casualty Report describing his injury is shown below. Click on the thumbnail to see it full size.
After Dad completed his service with the Army Air Force, he returned to his home town and took up farming. He also worked as a farm tractor mechanic at the local John Deere dealer and a few years later began working for the Post Office as a substitute rural mail carrier. He eventually became a full-time mail carrier, sorting mail and driving the country mail route each day from 6:00 AM until about 1:00 PM, then doing a full day’s farm work in the afternoon and evening.
Dad was proud to be a farmer, proud to carry the mail, and proud of his military service as a fighter pilot. I remember that when I was a youngster, if I would ask him to draw me a picture, he would usually draw a side view of a P-47 Thunderbolt in a dive strafing something on the ground. I don’t remember what it was he would draw being strafed, but I do remember the straight lines he would draw from the Thunderbolt’s wings down to the ground to depict the plane’s tracer bullets.