This thread got me looking into more info about the B-24, B-17, number of planes produced, number shot down, life expectancy for various crew members (number of missions), which locations in the plane had the highest injury / death stats... un-effing believable.

It worked out that a crew member in one of these bombers had about a 1 in 4 chance of getting through their required missions w/o being killed, injured, shot down, etc. They pretty much said it was a death sentence; if you came back in one piece, you were one lucky SOB.

It's just unimaginable what WWII required of people as far as hard work & personal sacrifice to for so many years on end; I don't see it in this country today... guess ya' gotta go to Ukraine to find it now.