The Day God Smiled

Walter Frum had completed his 65 combat missions as lead bombadiernavigator and was headed back to the States when his buddy and mentor's plane was shot down. He could go home but, angered, Frum joined Patton's Third Army and was later credited with capturing 125 Nazi troops. A few weeks later, Captain Frum left Europe convinced that Gus's death was caused by a letter from his wife. Earlier, Frum had written her, begging her to go easy on Gus until he had finished his last three missions. He's mad about you and might do something rash. Now, on the homeward journey, Frum was not drinking with the other vets. He was rubbing a black steel Belgian 25-caliber pistol, patting it in his side pocket along with its clip of bullets. His eyes were open but unseeing, lost in his mission as Gus's avenger. Assassinations are commonplace with men returning home, who have been taught to kill. JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers would perish from returned hero's bullets. Walter Frum was another soldier taught to kill, headed home.