A representative of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia, was in Wincanton this month to present the Wincanton branch of the Royal British Legion with a new American flag in time for the 70th anniversary commemoration next year of the crash of the American Flying Fortress, "Old Faithful". Daniel Peters, a veteran of both the United States Army and Air Force, was in town to hand over the "Stars and Stripes" to chairman Tony Goddard.

Tony visited the museum earlier in the year where he found that "Old Faithful" was commemorated there with a plaque and filled in detail of the crash to Dan. After contact with the Veterans group of which Dan is Vice Commander, it was agreed as a gesture of friendship and comradeship that the American veterans wished to supply the flag and it would be purchased and handed over when Dan was in Europe.   

Article taken with permission from the  "Sandbag" WINCANTON AND DISTRICT ROYAL BRITISH LEGION NEWSLETTER

Joe Pritchard first arrived in Savannah when his dad, a young USAF sergeant, was assigned to Hunter AFB in 1949.  After his tour at Hunter, Joe's dad continued his Air Force career and brought his family back to Savannah when he retired in 1969.  Joe followed his dad into the Air Force, serving from 1969 until 1972, including a tour in Vietnam, where he was a mechanic working on A1E Skyraiders.

He finished his tour with the Air Force at Charleston AFB, in South Carolina, and returned to Savannah, where he opted to continue his military career  by joining the 165th Airlift Wing of the Georgia Air National Guard.  He retired from the ANG, after 39 years of military service, in 2008.  During that period Joe lived in Rincon, Georgia, and put in 35 years with his "day job" as a train engineer with the CSX Rail Road Corporation.

Today Joe is a member of the Savannah Vietnam Veterans Chapter 671, and has several favorite volunteer organizations with which he is active - among them the Savannah School for Boys, the organization that raised several of his boyhood friends.  Joe heard about the City of Savannah restoration from friends in the Air National Guard and joined the restoration team in 2010, where his metal working skills were immediately put to use.  He is currently leading the team that is restoring the City of Savannah's upper turret.

Article courtesy of Savannah Morning News

It was a sunny day. I remember it so well. I sat at my desk in second grade with my lunch box under the seat with my books.

It was a Beatles lunch box - bright and yellow with their pictures on it. Then someone in the class told me The Beatles had said they were greater than God. My world caved in. I loved The Beatles, but even at a young age I knew that no one was greater than God.

I threw my lunch box away that day as soon as I got home. I don't remember any other lunch box I may have had throughout my school years, but I do remember The Beatles lunch box. It's funny the things that our mind chooses to remember.

Lunch boxes sure have changed since then. Today, lunch boxes are insulated and have their own little ice pack. I carried a ham sandwich loaded down with mayonnaise in an un-insulated tin box for hours in the Southern heat and never got sick. Maybe our immune systems were stronger back then. I can remember it being so hot that by lunch the chocolate on my Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls melted to the package and I had to lick the package to get all the chocolate off.

I was a lazy mother. I made my children eat lunch in the lunchroom. Perfectly good meals there, no need for me to send something. I can still hear one the ringing of the words "Mom. I need lunch money." I'm sure a whole forest was wiped out to make the amount of paper I used writing school lunch checks. And years later I miss those words ringing out through the house and the hustle and bustle that was the beginning of school.

Odds are if you have a school-age child you're going to be packing a few lunches. School lunches have changed drastically since my lunch box carrying days. Nutritional guidelines are limiting, even eliminating fats - offering more vegetables and providing fruit as dessert instead of chocolate cake. More and more children are opting out of the lunch line and bringing their sophisticated insulated soft side, designer lunch boxes instead. (Sans pictures of The Beatles)

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