And I was convinced that if something happened to Willie, Patton would shoot me dead right on the spot. And so every time I was there, I was terribly concerned. Happily, Willie made it and I made it, and that’s why I’m here sharing these stories with you. But I think I’m probably one of the few people in the world that was more scared of the general, than I was of the German Army. Only twice during my time in Europe, was I ever shot at by the enemy, and both times, fortunately, nothing bad happened, turned around and went the other way. I recall once when we came to the Remagen Bridge, that was the time the troops crossed the Rhine. And this was about a week after the initial crossings that were recorded and famous, and so on, and allowed the war to move ahead. And I drove up my Jeep with a crate of pigeons, and the guy that was directing traffic there took one look and said, “Out,” he said, “You can’t cross with that.” He said, “We’re priority.” And I said, “Okay.” So I would think back on many times that I’d be driving around Europe in the battlefields, and I’d had, always had to crate a pigeons in the back because I’d take them out on training flights.
