Moving Sale of a WW2 Vet- Thank you for your Service Sir

[diggummup]

So I went to a moving sale last Sunday. Turns out the guy is 91 years old and he flew on b-29 bombers over Japan during WW2. He had a bomb sight from one too. He wanted $2000 for it though, out of my price range. The guy still has all of his wits about him and for a little guy, he is strong as an ox. He started dragging out the bomb site that was mounted on a cast iron stand out of a closet. The thing had to weigh 75-80 pounds with the 4 foot stand it was on. I quickly grabbed it from him when I saw what he was trying to do. Anyway I ended up getting a few smalls from him, nothing too special. But I did get to listen to a few great stories about the war (and ditching a B-29 on Iwo Jima) and also managed to get a WW2 era silk Japanese flag hankerchief from him for free. He said it was given to him by another soldier while in occupied Japan after the war. His name is Maurice (Mickey) A. Segall and the inscription reads:

To Mickeys Auto clinic
Sapporo Japan
Feb 1947
For the Garage~
You boys made this a
"Sunken Sun"
It cost me a whole cigarette
Best of luck~
Eddee

I was surprised that he gave it to me. It's probably not worth much but it's NFS and will go into my collection of militaria that is growing ever so slowly. A great memory.

The house was mostly empty save a few things and most of the furniture. His wife is also still alive but has dementia. So, he sold the house and moved into an assisted living facility so he has help taking care of her. Great guy, they don't make them like that anymore. I shook his hand and thanked him for his service (and the flag). Here is the pic-

 

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[war-digs-it]

That entire post is better than gold!
Nothing better than to listen to those guys.
Thanks for sharing that.

 

[clovis97]

Very cool, Dig!!!!

Was it a Norden bomb sight?

 

[BosnMate]

That is awesome. Great post.

 

[cheese]

Nice. Glad you got a story out of it too. Those guys... America's finest generation, are slipping away fast. My Grandpa's head held a load of stories and he had some of the rarest medals and never told me one bit. He saw too much bad stuff and didn't want to talk about it.

 

[vpnavy]

Ya did good - treasure the moments with a true WWII hero - I am sure you made his day as well diggummup. Thanks for sharing...

 

[Datil_mountain_muse]

It would be great to record some of his stories for oral/video history.

That is a great find.

 

[diggummup]

Very cool, Dig!!!!

Was it a Norden bomb sight?

Yes it was. I don't know much about them but I thought the price was a little high. Probably more of a sentimental thing for him.


I could have sat and listened to him all day but other people started showing up, so he had to help his daughter out. They are the greatest generation, they fought and died for their country without question. I don't think many people today realize how many people actually died in WW2. Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

[Citiboy289]

I had a similar experience a few years ago when I met a 8 th army air force navagator, who was at least 80 and was sitting on his front porch, one hot Georgia afternoon, although I did not get any HARD TREASURE , The TREASURE of spending 2 hours talking with him was well worth any $$$$ value

 

[clovis97]

Yes it was. I don't know much about them but I thought the price was a little high. Probably more of a sentimental thing for him.


I could have sat and listened to him all day but other people started showing up, so he had to help his daughter out. They are the greatest generation, they fought and died for their country without question. I don't think many people today realize how many people actually died in WW2. Thanks for the replies everyone.

I don't think that the price was too far out of whack. Probably too high to make any money, but not priced out of reason, especially for the retail buyer.

If you have a few minutes, read up on the Norden bomb sight sometime. IIRC, this bomb sight calculated the speed of the plane, wind speed, and wind drift from a specified altitude. Pretty fascinating stuff, especially for that period of time. The Norden was considered so important that air crews were trained to destroy it in the event of a crashed landing in enemy held territory.

My best friend's father was stationed in the Pacific. The Norden bomb sight was classified top secret, and he always laughed because there was a pile of them sitting, unprotected, out in the open, on the base where he was!!