{"id":591,"date":"2014-05-02T15:36:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T23:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/?p=591"},"modified":"2014-05-02T15:36:51","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T23:36:51","slug":"leading-wwii-air-ace-dies-at-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/leading-wwii-air-ace-dies-at-93\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading WWII Air Ace Dies at 93"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"TweetButton_button\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  data-url=\"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/leading-wwii-air-ace-dies-at-93\/\" data-text=\"Leading WWII Air Ace Dies at 93\" data-lang=\"en\">Tweet<\/a><br \/>\n<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");<\/script><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/james-goodson-dies-leading-army-air-forces-ace-in-world-war-ii\/2014\/05\/01\/4b8a9b3e-d14e-11e3-9e25-188ebe1fa93b_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">R.I.P., James Goodson.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>My father was a WWII pilot and were he still alive today, he would be 96. \u00a0There are not many left of The Greatest Generation and we lose more every day. \u00a0God rest their souls &#8211; they were faced with a horrific task and they did their duty.<\/p>\n<p>Sidenote: \u00a0We learn from Goodson that smoking is good for you:<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">That June, he was in his P-51 making a strafing run over a German airfield when he was shot down. He fled into a birch forest before collapsing from injuries. He eventually was caught by the Germans and threatened with execution.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>He recalled that one captor asked him if he wanted a drink or another indulgence before being shot. Mr. Goodson spied a box of Havana cigars, asked for a stogie and began to blow smoke rings, which he said shocked the German and led to a conversation about their mutual interest in cigars.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>\u201cThe guy had never seen anything like that,\u201d Mr. Goodson\u00a0<a style=\"color: #6a6a69;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eL1MAvV_OrY\" target=\"_blank\" data-xslt=\"_http\">once said in an interview<\/a>, \u201cand I started teaching him how to blow smoke rings.\u201d Instead of being shot, he was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>\u201cPeople say smoking costs lives,\u201d he said. \u201cIt saved my life.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">Godspeed, \u00a0Lt.Col. Goodson. \u00a0Rest Well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000;\">Hat Tip: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/althouse.blogspot.com\/2014\/05\/people-say-smoking-costs-lives-it-saved.html\" target=\"_blank\">Althouse<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Crossposted at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cuanaenterprises.com\/wordpress\/?p=441\" target=\"_blank\">Men Out Of Work Blog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet R.I.P., James Goodson. My father was a WWII pilot and were he still alive today, he would be 96. \u00a0There are not many left of The Greatest Generation and we lose more every day. \u00a0God rest their souls &#8211; they were faced with a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}