“We knew we had a job to do—defend our country,” Franz said in the program, “and we knew the boys in those airplanes had a job to do, too, because they had orders to get the war finished and it was just such fierce combat.” Franz left Boeing’s party with new friends among former adversaries and an invitation from the American Fighter Aces veteran’s association to attend future reunions as their guest. Franz returned to Vancouver certain that he would never know the B-17 crew’s fate.
