Many veterans brought home some type of memento from the war, an item that would forever spark memories of those days long ago serving in the U.S. military.

Few undertook the task with as much gusto as Everette Edwards. Not only is his collection unique in its breadth but it’s also memorable for the peculiarity of the items he chose.

Tucked away in a spare room of his Apex home is a bag full of trinkets and oddities he has saved from the war.

There’s his original leather flight helmet, goggles, oxygen mask, and log book. Unable to bring home his parachute he instead grabbed the rip cord, pilot chute (a small chute that deploys first and pulls out the larger chute), and a knife used for cutting tangled lines. He even managed to take a small light beacon used in water rescues.

“I really wanted the parachute but they wouldn’t let me take it,” said Edwards. “So I grabbed all this other stuff instead.”

Edwards also has most of the items from his mess kit, which he took with him on each of his combat missions. The fork is missing two prongs that were blown off by German anti-aircraft fire.

“I had the fork in my leather jacket and I left that (in the main part of the plane) while I climbed down into the ball turret,” said Edwards. “Well, shrapnel tore right through the plane and went right through my jacket. You can see what it did to the fork and that is why I kept it.”

The old leather jacket is also a part of Edwards’ collection. On the back is written the 92nd Bomb Group’s motto of “Fames Favored Few” along with small bombs marking each bombing mission that he flew. There is also one more thing painted on the back of his jacket – the image of a beautiful curvaceous woman wearing nothing but high heels and a smile.

Edwards wore that jacket while visiting home on leave and quickly incurred his mother’s ire. “When I brought it home there were nice ----- on here,” said Edwards as he pointed to the image of the woman. “Well, my momma took one look at it and put adhesive tape over it.”

Edwards wasn’t too upset because he was pretty sure he could remove the tape without damaging the image. But his buddies never gave him that opportunity.

“The boys couldn’t stand it once they saw that tape on my jacket,” said a smiling Edwards. “So they took it and ripped the tape off and they took the ----- with it.”

Also included in Edwards’ collection are photos, letters, v-mail and clippings from the North State News, a newspaper that was printed in downtown Apex during the war.

All of the items will one day go to his grandchildren.

“I’m glad I kept all of it so I could give it to them,” said Edwards.

Picking up a 1945 photo that shows his entire crew posing in front of a B-17, Edwards laughs at how they viewed themselves as rugged men even though they all look barely older than teenagers.

“I thought I was one old, tough son of a -----,” said Edwards with a wide grin. Embarrassing mistake

There are as few things in this world as serious as war. Yet, speak to anyone who has been involved in combat and they are quick to recall a funny incident that occurred during their days of service. Humor, it seems, helps men and women deal with the alternating stress, fatigue, horror and tedium associated with all wars.

One of Edwards’ favorite humorous tales involves a huge mistake he made when installing the twin machine guns mounted in his ball turret.

Before every combat mission the bombing crews would gather for a pre-flight briefing. After receiving details on the mission and synchronizing their watches, the gunners would retrieve machine guns from the airfield’s armory. It was standard procedure and one that Edwards was well acquainted with.

Yet, there was one embarrassing – and nearly fatal – experience when Edwards turned the routine task into a big problem.

“After (the briefing) you would go and get your two machine guns that you were responsible for,” said Edwards. “One of them was for the right hand and one of them was for the left. The bullets would fit in a different way on each gun.

“Well, usually I would place the right one in my right hand and the left one in my left hand. But just as I started doing this somebody yelled, ‘Hey, Edwards’ and we started talking. So I ended up with the right gun in my left hand and the left one in my right.”

Edwards installed the machine guns into the ball turret without realizing his gaffe. It wasn’t until the planes reached the English Channel on the way to their targets that the crews began testing their guns.

“When we got over the Channel the captain would always come on (the plane’s radio) and say, ‘Alright, waist gunner, fire your guns. Okay, ball turret, fire your guns.’”

As Edwards prepared to fire his guns he got the surprise of his life – the shells wouldn’t fit into the guns. Once he realized the problem he admitted his mistake to the captain.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do and the captain was raising total ---- up there,” said Edwards. “So, I took out a screwdriver and I tried to change the gun select switch but I couldn’t get it open.”

Knowing he would have to reach outside to grab the gun, Edwards turned his turret toward the wind. He hoped the strong wind resistance would keep the small plexiglass turret latch from flying open while he attempted to fix his problem.

The plan didn’t exactly work as he hoped.

“I reached outside and the wind took the (one of the guns) right out of my hand and it shot right back through the rest of the formation,” said Edwards. “Somebody came on the radio from one of the other planes and said, ‘What the hell was that that went by?’ Any way, I got (the remaining gun) straightened out but the captain was still --------. I had to fly the next five missions with just one gun but we didn’t see any planes so it didn’t matter.”

In fact, not once during any of his 20 missions did Edwards get the opportunity to fire at an enemy plane.

The Luftwaffe was already devastated by the time Edwards got into the war in 1945 and the Allies dominated the skies.

What few German fighters remained to attack the formations were usually taken care of by the American P-51 Mustang fighters.

“We had those P-51s flying with us,” said Edwards. “They would just shoot the ---- out of the Luftwaffe.” The lack of German fighters certainly increased the aircrew survival rates but the bombing missions still remained a very dangerous assignment. The Germans had been pushed back all across Europe and were now bunched into a concentrated area.

That also meant their anti-aircraft guns were also heavily concentrated in many areas and the desperate Germans were not about to allow the Allies to bomb their cities and factories without a fight.

One of the last missions that Edwards flew, he and his crewmates experienced firsthand just how devastating the German flak could be.

To this day, Edwards can’t believe he survived that fateful mission, which ended with a violent crash in a French farmer’s field. (The conclusion of this story will appear in next week’s edition.)