But he'd remember: "We don't go there."Ī few days after Moran’s daughter shared those words with Armbruster, she gave him a small La Crosse Tribune article from 1992 with the headline, "Soldiers Grove gunner falls 4 miles in plane tail - and lives!" The Tribune got some details through a S. Armbruster would silently look at Moran’s hands and think about the fighter pilots he went to war against. Photo courtesy of John Armbrusterīut they never dared to talk about the war. They talked fishing and hunting.Ī 1992 newspaper clipping about Gene Moran from the La Crosse Tribune. They watched Green Bay Packers games together. 'That's all we have'Īfter Armbruster’s father and father-in-law died, he said Moran became a surrogate grandfather to Armbruster’s kids. Armbruster joined WPR’s " The Larry Meiller Show" for a segment airing Memorial Day, a day to honor the memories of soldiers who died - soldiers whose names and stories are known, and those that are not. But after years of Armbruster and Moran’s families becoming close and building trust, Moran agreed to share his remarkable story - but only if Armbruster wrote it.Īfter three years of interviews and research, Armbruster wrote the book, "Tailspin," which came out April 30.
She told him: "We don’t go there."Īs was the case for so many families of veterans, the details of their loved one’s deployments remained largely unknown, untouched, undiscussed. But Moran’s daughter told him that wasn't an option. The rookie history teacher started to hear layer after layer of this story - Gene Moran, the Soldiers Grove native whose Flying Fortress bomber was shot down in World War II, yet he somehow survived the 4-mile descent, the 17 months inside Nazi prisoner-of-war camps and a 600-mile forced march.Īrmbruster had to share Moran's story. 'Lean Gene the fighting machine,'" Armbruster remembered her saying.Īrmbruster’s mind started racing.
0 kommentar(er)
