Tanis said:
He's a war criminal, who should have spent his last years in a jail cell.
Instead it seems like his blind, dangerous, patriotism will be remembered fondly.
Shame really.
Unfortunately that's what patriotism, or to be more specific, rigid viewpoint tends to do. Whether they are Japanese, German Nazis, or the American pilots who carried out the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Interestingly, in the last example, I don't think there were any sort of consequences for those connected to that project either, no war crime charges, no jail time, things like that, even though the death toll was in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. It might be why his story didn't bother me so much, because frankly, if we were to start insisting on putting people in that situation in jail, I'd have asked those flight crews be at the head of the line. =P It just seems to be an inevitable requisite, and from a cynically practical point of view, makes a depressing sort of sense. Difficult to convince your soldiers to carry out these difficult, dangerous, morally questionable acts to support your country, if at a moment's notice they'll join the crowd of protesters in pointing fingers at you.
OT: I remember reading about this story a while ago, I wonder if he had the time to make a more detailed recording of what happened for those 30 years. His situation was certainly unique, and his survival skills were clearly second to none.