Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Vance Agee

May 30, 2006

SSGT. John Hilton, Europe, WWII
Vance Agee

“…a thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you….” Psalm 91

The first squadron had flown over the Nazi oil field. They were met not by antiaircraft guns but by a greater evil known as “flack cannons” Flack cannons were like huge, monstrous shotguns loaded with tons of pieces of scrap metal. When fired, the chunks of metal struck U.S. bombers like hail – except that this hail penetrated right through fusilages, wings, and fuel tanks!

The first squadron took a horrible attack.

Flying in the second squadron was SSGT. John Hilton, who told me this story. His flight was actually more terrifying!

As his plane crossed the site, he could hear metal striking all over his plane! Suddenly, he felt an object pass over both his legs! He thought that he had been struck. He felt the object through the uniform!

When he had the chance, he checked his body, but NO WOUNDS and no rips in his uniform! None. He later found the ugly, roundish chuck of scrap metal inside the fusilage! He kept it. When the plane returned to base, it was full of holes: fusilage, wings, even fuel tanks! But the plane made it back and so did John Hilton, but without a scratch.

Sixty years later, resting in a hospital bed, John told this, one of many such stories, to a church visitor, Vance Agee, who thought that these stories MUST be preserved in honor of our WWII veterans, quickly passing on to their greatest Reward. John also soon passed, leaving a dear wife, a true Christian lady, and four children, and a lifetime of service to others.

Of course, John could have been horribly wounded or killed by that ugly chunk of metal, now a prized family possession of a miracle. John’s salvation and ours is, indeed, in the Lord.

Amen

Told with permission of Mrs. Elsie Hilton, who possesses a complete record of all of John’s missions, EXCEPT for this one, which he told me that night in the hospital! VA

SSGT. John Hilton, Europe, WWII
Vance Agee

“…a thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you….” Psalm 91

The first squadron had flown over the Nazi oil field. They were met not by antiaircraft guns but by a greater evil known as “flack cannons” Flack cannons were like huge, monstrous shotguns loaded with tons of pieces of scrap metal. When fired, the chunks of metal struck U.S. bombers like hail – except that this hail penetrated right through fusilages, wings, and fuel tanks!

The first squadron took a horrible attack.

Flying in the second squadron was SSGT. John Hilton, who told me this story. His flight was actually more terrifying!

As his plane crossed the site, he could hear metal striking all over his plane! Suddenly, he felt an object pass over both his legs! He thought that he had been struck. He felt the object through the uniform!

When he had the chance, he checked his body, but NO WOUNDS and no rips in his uniform! None. He later found the ugly, roundish chuck of scrap metal inside the fusilage! He kept it. When the plane returned to base, it was full of holes: fusilage, wings, even fuel tanks! But the plane made it back and so did John Hilton, but without a scratch.

Sixty years later, resting in a hospital bed, John told this, one of many such stories, to a church visitor, Vance Agee, who thought that these stories MUST be preserved in honor of our WWII veterans, quickly passing on to their greatest Reward. John also soon passed, leaving a dear wife, a true Christian lady, and four children, and a lifetime of service to others.

Of course, John could have been horribly wounded or killed by that ugly chunk of metal, now a prized family possession of a miracle. John’s salvation and ours is, indeed, in the Lord.

Amen

Told with permission of Mrs. Elsie Hilton, who possesses a complete record of all of John’s missions, EXCEPT for this one, which he told me that night in the hospital! VA

Vance Agee

vgagee@adelphia.net