I recently recalled the climbing accident in which my climbing guide fell to his death as we ascended the Grand Teton. Contacting family and friends afterwards was emotionally exhausting because, had the single piece of protection between Allan and me failed, my nearest and dearest would have instead received telephone calls reporting my passing.
Veterans vanquishing autocracies during the war faced death endlessly. They returned from combat not wanting to discuss what was endured: They wanted to celebrate surviving that which unfortunate others had not and enjoy the life remaining them.
Columbus attorney Bill Threadgill’s passing, at 101 years old, on Wednesday April 30, 2025, offers opportunity to remember veterans’ sacrifices.
Bill wrote an account of his wartime service for inclusion among the materials documenting the World War II experiences of Lowndes County, Mississippi veterans, in the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library Division of Archives. Bill’s memoir provides a window into what World War II combatants confronted on a daily basis.
It is apropos that prayers of thanksgiving issue at the 80th anniversary of V-J Day. The end of hostilities allowed those who did not perish to return stateside, unlike those whose absence leaves a hole lasting until the end of time.
Bill Threadgill served as a navigator on a B-17, with the 379th Bombardment Group of the Eighth Air Force, during the Battles of Rhineland, Ardennes (the Battle of the Bulge), and Central Europe, in the air war over Europe.
Bill’s wartime raison d’etre was to return his airplane and crew successfully to their home base or a safe alternative: “only one in three of the B-17 crew members serving with the Eighth Air Force in England in 1942 and 1943 survived.”
The dislocation visited upon me, momentarily, unexpectedly, was the reality that our ancestors inhabited repetitively over many months during World War II, fully aware that quiet days were interstices before facing one’s fate again on the following days.
Irving Berlin’s summoning dreams —
“of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow”
— referenced the happiness which survivors would know once they returned to life as it had been before peace and prosperity were shattered.
Bill enlisted in the military following his freshman year at the University of Mississippi, initially training for the infantry at Fort McClellan, Alabama. Bill rapidly recognized that being cannon fodder on the frontlines, fighting a groundwar, was unappealing.
Bill transferred into the United States Army Air Forces after receiving requisite parental permission. After additional instruction, a 17 day crossing of the North Atlantic was made — with enemy submarines lurking — before becoming based at Kimbolton, England, 65 miles north of London.
Flying through a flak-filled sky is largely a matter of luck. Crews carried an escape map, K-rations, and a pistol in hopes of eluding captors should landfall be made inside enemy territory. These items primarily provided psychological benefit: An alternative landing base offered a better outcome after a plane was damaged by enemy action or suffered mechanical difficulty.
The white cliffs of Dover were a welcome sight, signaling successful return after a bombing mission. B-17s were designed to remain airborne after sustaining significant damage, increasing the survival rate.
Bill believed that he learned self-discipline, and knowledge from his military service. Education, independence and — most significantly — teamwork were essential elements of a return to marriage, procreation and productive work.
The refrain to Vera Lynn’s 1939 masterpiece sung to encourage departing troops said,
“We’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again
some sunny day”
No one knew in advance whether souls would reunite on earth or in the afterlife. People who would have never been born, had those who returned not come home, owe their everything to the veterans who survived World War II.
