The Unspoken-of Front

B-25 via Wikipedia

When this belated factoid appeared as a correction in the NYT,  I wanted to pick up the phone and call the house in Tucson where I still picture him sitting. From that spare and uncomfortable roost, he would probably have given a glancing, indirect account of how friendly fire incidents were discussed and reported in the World War II theater where he served as an Army Air Force B-25 pilot. It was a mistaken B-25 strike that killed the NYT reporter and U.S. troops on that day in 1942. Or he would have simply said, "Yes," in a tone of voice that hinted at horrors he witnessed, or feared, and, silently, "Speak of it no more this day."