RE: Don't let this happen to you guys!!
Yes he was. He was part of the last "great generation". These were the guys who were tough enough to win a war, from the leadership on down. He flew 86 missions [they didn't use the term "sorties" back then] over Germany with the 405th fighter group, 8th Army Air Force in a P-47. His plane, the Sigma Nu Girl has become a cult favorite amongst some scale modelers. There is even a decal sheet available of his plane.
His generation were the ones who returned from the war and used their energy and ambition to turn not just California, but they turned the entire country into the model that the rest of the World would try to keep pace with.
As time marches on, our country will go the same route as the old Roman Empire. The toughness of the men eventually gets breeded out and what you end up with are jokers and lisping weaklings who could not lead soda through a straw.
Just look at the leadership SF had had the last 30-40 years, it's almost "cartoonish"...no it IS cartoonish. Like watching sheep getting led off to slaughter.
The average couch potato kid of today would not last 15 minutes back in 1930. Show me a weak child and I will show you an even weaker adult.
Athero-sclerosis was TOTALLY unheard of back then if you were under 40......today it is showing up in post mortems done on teenagers.
See a pattern developing?