Gratitude

While at the undisclosed location last Saturday, the PiPress' Mark Yost gave me a heads-up about an article he was working on - a piece about a Dakota County man, a native of the UK, who has spent the last couple of decades on a couple of unusual missions; painting, and finding airmen missing in action from World War II.

The article is in today's PiPress, and it's a great read.

Every so often, you run across someone who makes your life seem infinitely small and unimportant. I'd count Bryan Moon, whose World War II paintings are on display in St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly's office, among that group, although that would probably greatly embarrass this humble man.

His selfless accomplishments are particularly relevant because Sunday was the 60th anniversary of V-E Day. And that's where Moon's tale begins.

In 1940, he was 11 years old, living in Southampton on the English coast. The Nazis firebombed his house and his family lived in an Anderson shelter — a corrugated tin hut covered with dirt — for two years. He and a friend often sat and watched American bombers take off from a local airfield. And thus began a lifelong love of aviation and an admiration for the Americans.

Read the whole thing - it's an amazing story.

More later.

Posted by Mitch at May 10, 2005 08:31 AM | TrackBack