A personal post

Ok, I know I said I’d write about Dredd, but things have gotten quite hectic in my personal life in between then and now. But I must say the movie didn’t have any glaring scientific inaccuracies, and it had some pretty cool scenes, def worth checking out if you like a more grim tale.

My grandfather passed away on Sunday, hence the slight delay. He passed away in his sleep; he sat down for an afternoon nap and didn’t wake up. I really feel as if it was God calling him home, so I’m at peace with it.

Now, you don’t have to read further than here, because all I’m going to do is sing his praises. He didn’t have many friends left, so I thought that if even one of you reads further and mourns for him, then I’ll have accomplished something.

My grandfather was a hero. Literally. He served during WWII in a bomber squadron as a radar/radio operator. He flew many sorties, and didn’t once complain. He nutted up, and served his country in a time of war. Unfortunately his plane was shot down on a night raid against V2 rocket stations (the things that were hitting London like there was no tomorrow). Some of the crew went down with the plane; only my granddad and one other serviceman made it out. They landed in a field where they were picked up by the French resistance, and hidden in a school house. The school mistress was a seriously badass lady, always traveled around on her bicycle with a pistol in the basket, ready to shoot herself or the Germans, which had to be done. Eventually my granddad and his friend were betrayed by a member of the resistance (who was later shot for it), and taken to a concentration camp. Yeah, concentration camp, not POW camp. Even though they tried to tell the SS they were airmen, the SS wouldn’t listen. I won’t horrify you with the details, but my granddad survived the camp and it’s beatings and hardships until near the end of war. The Germans knew they were going to lose, so the Luftwaffe freed my granddad and his friend and put them in a POW camp to get brownie points with the Allies. My granddad and his friend were so unused to the amount of food that they were the only two in the whole POW camp to put on weight during their stay. Oh, and the POW camp? It was the one from the Great Escape, although my granddad was there after that went down. He was eventually freed, survived the war, married my grandmother, and raised my dad. He stayed in the airforce until retirement, becoming a super badass training officer and stuff. He also left me with the saying “Do not panic flight mechanic!”, which is from the fact that the flight mechanic was responsible for keeping the plane going, so if he panicked then everyone did.

My granddad may have become a bit grumpy and forgetful near the end, but when I was younger he would always be willing to wrestle with me, he always had time for me, and was generally awesome. He was, and still is, one of my heroes.

Jeremy