BigDog Speaks

The Red Baron of world war one was a national hero to Germany and a nemesis to everyone else. All the fly boys wanted a crack at him and every last one of them hoped to shoot him down. His day finally came and he was shot down. One bullet entered his right side and traversed an upward angle to exit on the left and lodge in his jacket. The bullet was a .303. After much hoopla, the kill shot was credited to one of the fly boys and neatly filed away as fact, and history.

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The fact and history was eventually questioned by a team of experts and the results were surprising and very sad. The gent that shot down the Red Baron was an infantryman. Just one more poor bugger in the trenches and his shot made history. He died never being recognized for this shot and there were no known pictures of him anywhere. He died a faceless hero, recognized unacceptably late. Evans, Australian, the man who brought down the Baron. This man, a hero to the world at large in his time, left a small paper trail that proves he existed but nothing more. No children to mourn him, be proud of him, keep his memory alive and be proud of what he had accomplished. The world lost a hero on his death and never even knew it. The sad part is we have no way to know what he even looked like. We know what the Baron looked like. Many photos exist of the Baron and most of us even know the tale of his red plane, and invitation for the fly boys to take a shot. The Baron ruled the skies with deadly accuracy and will be remembered. The man who brought him down is barely a name and nothing more. Every war has it's hero's, as people, we should remember them better.