Glider pilots were "hidden" heroes of WWII

uring World War II, winning strategies involved numerous secondary operations behind the pushes of troops and armor along the front lines. Some were unlikely and not all worked. Some were fatally flawed, but all were deemed necessary to halt the aggression of enemy troops spilling over into the heart of Europe while Americans also fought a second war in the Pacific.

To stop the onslaught of advancing Nazi forces, the U.S. and Great Britain enlisted the use of the glider plane to drop behind enemy lines with needed supplies and men to stave off these attacks. Gliders were called “flying coffins,” for they had no means of control except for a brake or on-board weapons for self-protection. The men who flew them knew that their probabilities of a safe return or survival were not good, yet their missions were vital and in many cases, won the day for the Allies.

Col. Linus Ryan, 90, Custer, was one of those glider pilots. He not only returned to tell of his exploits, but he also went on to serve in the Korean War as a forward pilot on observer planes, which were sent into the theater of operations to get target information.