Sand Mountain Reporter

CROSSVILLE – Students at Crossville High School saluted local veterans during a program Friday.

“It makes you proud that they are remembering you,” said Byron Gilbreath, a 75-year-old Navy veteran who served in Korea and Vietnam.

Five veterans spoke to the sixth- through 12th-graders that packed the Crossville gym.

About an hour before the program kicked off, veterans who were going to be honored swapped stories and remembered lost friends.

Don Griffin, 85, spent 21 years in the armed forces and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

Throughout World War II, Griffin kept a diary, where he jotted notes about the missions he went on.

“The main thing I wrote down was what time we were going to get back so I would know if I could go to town,” he said.

On one mission, Griffin left his parachute behind, which meant he had to use the emergency chute on the plane.

The emergency chutes also doubled as the seat cushions. In order to make up for the lack of the cushion, Griffin took a couple of flak suits and sat on top of them.

This meant he was sitting a few inches lower than he normally did.

“We were over there in enemy territory and it was cold. I mean like 50 or 60 degrees below zero, at 34,000 feet,” Griffin said.

“The radar operator tapped me on the shoulder and he told me to look. And up to my right, toward the front of the airplane, two of the transmitters had been blown out.

“Then he looked over and pointed where my head would have been had I not forgotten my parachute.”

There was a large hole where the radar operator was pointing.

“War is for young men,” Griffin said. “They ought to make men over the age of 55 go, because when you’re young, you don’t get frightened and everything.”

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Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

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