Captain Jerry Yellin, the Pilot who Flew WWII's Last Mission

Overcoming PTSD: WWII Fighter Pilot Jerry Yellin | David Lynch Foundation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1VhNx2PU-c

Goes to show that one my enemy does not have to be my child's enemy, and two that love of a child is a far stronger emotion than hate for an enemy.

TSgt Frank Shirley, PO3 Steven Sherrill, he seems to have recognized the common humanity among soldiers. It helps that we won and transformed Japan into a free democracy, so they were no longer the fanatics that we fought in WWII.

It will take more time than I have on this earth for me to see the common humanity of ISIS killers - just as it took a great deal of time for WWII soldiers to see the common humanity of the Japanese.

I served in Viet Nam with a pilot that had fought in the Pacific. He said that they had raided an island to free downed pilots that were being held prisoners by the Japs; as our troops closed in on them the Japs made their prisoners kneel down and they chopped off their heads rather than see them freed.

He said that it pissed him off so bad that he never let another one of them hit the ground alive; after he shot them down he would come around again and strafe them in their chutes. He could still not speak their names without spitting 25 years later.

I felt the same way about the VC and NVA for many years too, so I understand the feeling.