***Disclaimer: I will get some of these details wrong. It was written with love and not accuracy. When I get around to writing my novel I will get it right...
My grandfather was known to me simply as Beer-Beer. His first grandchild, my cousin Paul, apparently gave him that name. When Paul was very young, perhaps 18 months, someone pointed to my grandfather and said, Paul, who is that?
Paul replied Beer-Beer and the name stuck.
Albert Sylvan Pela, Sr. was born in Victoria, Texas. I have heard that he and Maw-Maw played in the same sandbox as toddlers but never had this confirmed. I do know they went on a blind date in July 1942, when Beer-Beer was a student at Texas A & M and Maw-Maw was a student at Rice. They hit it off and by December 1942 were pretty sold on each other. For their first Christmas, Beer-Beer gave Maw-Maw a little gold cross that she cherished for many years. She gave the cross to Mary Martin to keep for her first birthday...
I don't know whether Beer-Beer was drafted or signed up for WWII, again forgive my lack of details. Beer-Beer was assigned to a B-17 bomber as part of the Mighty 8th Air Force Group. He and my grandmother married before he shipped out to England. Beer-Beer was the tailgunner, one of the smallest guys to be able to crawl in the tail of his plane. If you have seen Memphis Belle, Harry Connick, Jr. was the tailgunner in that movie.
Beer-Beer's group flew 24 missions successfully, including a drop on D-Day to drop supplies to the troops on the beaches in Normandy and making their way inland. On what would have been Beer-Beer's 25th and final mission, his crew was shot down on a mission over France. Beer-Beer didn't realize his plane had been hit until he saw his pilot and co-pilot jumping out - he quickly decided he better jump out too. He was so quick he forgot his shoes. It was cramped in the tailgunner spot - he often removed his shoes to make more room.
Beer-Beer safely landed and hid out in a barn for a few days before he was found. The local mayor took him the Germans because he didn't know what else to do with him. Beer-Beer officially became a POW - Prisoner of War - in late summer 1944. That late in the war, the German prisons had gotten pretty full. Because there was no room in the prisons, the Germans just marched Beer-Beer and his fellow prisoners around Germany and France. The slept outside and sometimes got a potatoe or some bread to eat. Beer-Beer was a POW for about 9 months. He first knew he was liberated when he saw a fellow prisoner smoking a Lucky Strike he got from an American GI.
Once liberated, Beer-Beer's diet was strictly regulated as many prisoners were near starvation. One night, however, he and another fellow prisoner snuck into the mess and split a whole pan of blueberry cobbler. They were both violently ill for days. Beer-Beer never ate blueberry cobbler for the rest of his life.
Beer-Beer returned home to Maw-Maw in Victoria and completed his studies at Texas A & M. Their dorm was full of married GIs after the war and Maw-Maw remembered at one point being the only non-pregnant wife on their entire floor. Eventually, Beer-Beer would raise 4 wonderful children and see all of his 9 grandchildren born. Beer-Beer died in 1990 or 1991 or 1992? when I was in junior high.
The red poppy is all over the WWII memorials here. Its tradition goes back centuries and is used to honor veterans of all wars. Here are some red poppies I caught at a garden here:
On D-Day, Beer-Beer sent a telegram to Maw-Maw that simply said:
I am ok. Pray for the guys on the ground.
The guys on the ground and in the air, like my grandfather, are honored on VE Day. I salute them.
** Thank you for indulging me. Next post will be about the kids I promise...
1 comment:
One of the greatest generations in the history of this country. Thank you Beer-Beer & dad for fighting for what was right.
Mike T (Pops)
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