The Greatest Generation

Following a story we published last year about one of our residents, Jack Brindley, an ex RAF pilot, who took to the skies again at 90, as part of Project Propeller last July, we had a few emails from people who wanted to know more. One lady got in touch via our Facebook page having seen the picture of Jack with his Squadron 89 colleagues, convinced that her father was in the photo, we’ve now discovered that indeed he was, a navigator from Wales.  Jack remembers him well. We also had an email from a retired US Military Pilot living in Arizona.  He flew helicopters during the Vietnam War and heavy jets for the airlines until retirement.  His passion for studying the RAF during World War II meant he was particularly interested in Jack’s story, which he came across online.  He had coincidentally already done some research on Jack’s squadron, Squadron 89, which was quiet famous by the end of the war.  He had lots of questions for Jack. Jack was only too happy to answer his questions and gave us a full account of ditching a ‘Beaufighter’ in the sea, bobbing about in a flimsy life raft with his navigator in the freezing water for nearly 4 hours, before being rescued by an American destroyer. Our US military pilot was thrilled to hear back, in the US they call Jack’s generation and the US veterans of that era “The Greatest Generation”.  Jack is indeed one of those.