WWII Veteran and a Man Who Was a Boy in Germany During WWII Attend Arsenal of Democracy Conference

At today’s Arsenal of Democracy Conference at Yankee Air Museum, I had the pleasure of sharing a lunch table with Chester and Jim.

Jim, at right, is a World War II veteran, who was training as a pilot to fly the B-25 Mitchell (a two engine bomber—the Yankee Air Museum owns and maintains a flyable Mitchell called the Yankee Warrior.) He completed his training on May 24, 1945, only days after VE Day, so he never saw combat.

Chester, at left, was just a boy during WWII, and he saw the bombers from a very different angle… from the ground in Poland and Germany. Fortunately, he and his family managed to stay safe during the war.

The two men are friends, and both came to hear our three speakers at the Arsenal of Democracy Conference today:

Randy Hotton, Yankee Air Museum board member and historian

Charles Hyde of Wayne State University and author of “Arsenal of Democracy: The Automotive Indutry during World War II.”

And Michael W.R. Davis, former director of the Detroit Historical Society and author of “Detroit’s Wartime Industry: Arsenal of Democracy.”