A number of years ago while on a flight from the Canadian Yukon to Vancouver, B.C., my late husband, Jack and I spoke to the young man sitting next to us. He told us that his parents had emigrated from Italy in 1952 to Canada. When realizing we were Americans he related to us that his father thought the luckiest thing that ever happened to him was when he was captured by the Americans in North Africa and had been their prisoner of war. Then my husband remarked that during World War II on his way to India, he spent time in Casablanca and at the camp where he was staying the perimeter was guarded by Italian Prisoners of War. Upon hearing that the young man's mouth flew open and when he was able to speak he explained that his father had always told the story that while a Prisoner of War he had guarded an American base and neither he or his two younger brothers ever believed him. He couldn't wait for the plane to land so he could call his family and explain what he had just heard.

The young man then asked us to please wait for him in the luggage pick up area.

He was a partner in a sporting goods company, returning from a business convention and presented us with whatever sporting goods items he had left in his luggage.

Jack when thinking about this incident always laughed and said "This proved that it paid to serve my country during wartime."

Submitted by Shirley B. Hoffman April 2003.