Joseph Michael Griego reminisces about his experiences as a tail gunner in World War. As with so many young men of that time period, Joe entered the military, joining the US Army Air Corp. Ultimately, he was assigned to a B-17 as a tail gunner. Joe participated in many combat missions over Germany, until that day, March 18, 1945, Joe remembers hearing an explosion and then virtual silence. It was then he realized that his B-17 had been hit and the tail was separated from the fuselage. Parachuting into Germany, he was captured and spent the balance of the war in a Prisoner of War camp, before being freed on April 25, 1945.