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It's not just 400,000 men, it's one man or one woman who left their children behind during
World War II. My father Lt. Kenneth Harry Underwood is buried at Madingley Cemetery,
the American cemetery in Madingley, England, which is near Cambridge, England. He was killed
in his P-38 Lightning in World War II on the 18th of May 1944, and this is really about
him and what he did. He was out flying one day, getting ready for D-Day, and he was doing
a lot of low level maneuvering, and something happened with his P-38 Lightning. To this
day we don't know for sure, he tried to bring it in. He brought it into a field. It spun,
and crashed into an oak tree, and the oak tree won. His plane exploded into quite a
few pieces, spread over quite an area. Whatever happened, we don't know. Only he knows. Only
he can tell me some day what happened, and I'm going to ask him.
He's not the only one with a story like that. He's a story that gets publicized often, but
there was hundreds, thousands of other men that gave their lives for their country, and
all of them need to remembered and memorialized somehow.
I'm afraid that the American public doesn't really understand what was done. World War
II, there will never be another one like it. I would hope that they never forget the sacrifices
by these men. Personally, I feel that it's important for
Americans to go visit these locations overseas because lots of times these men are forgotten,
not thought about, but they're over there buried, close to where they gave their lives
for their country, where they gave that last full measure, and I think that it's definitely
a different feeling being over there in a military cemetery, full of military men, all
of whom gave their lives for their country. I look at those crosses, I look at those names,
and there's a story behind every one, and it's a beautiful place. And when I first went
there in 1971, I thought, my gosh, it's like being in northeast Kansas, where my father
grew up, where I grew up. And there was a field in the distance of flax, the yellow.
It was just an absolutely beautiful place. And I'm glad he found a nice place to be.
And I hope one day, if I make it as a pilot in the Air Force, you know flying combat if
I get the opportunity, I'll again continue to experience those same emotions he experienced
all those years ago in that same aircraft, wearing that same uniform.
He was just a guy who wanted to do his duty and come home, as one of the fellows that
flew with him said.