"In Memoriam – John Bruce"

September 2007 Tulip Talk Article (Revised)

by Nancy L. K.-T.

“Will the circle be unbroken?  Bye and bye, Lord.  Bye and bye. Will our crew be back together?  In the sky, Lord.  In the sky.”  Paraphrasing the A. P. Carter hit, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, Mike Banta of the 91st Bomb Group Memorial Association concluded his e-mail about fellow “Ring” airman, John Bruce, rejoining his crew on August 1, 2007 at the age of 87 years.

For AWCA members who’ve been here in May, you will know about this most courageous, honorable, gentle and inspiring hero, John Bruce.  John Bruce and pilot, Keene McCammon, were the only survivors when their plane was strafed over Holland by Nazi’s as they returned to England from their first—and only—combat mission, successfully taking out a munitions factory in Kassel, Germany.  On that horrifying day, July 30, 1943, their U.S. 8th Air Force, 1st Air Division, 323rd Squadron, B-17 bomber, Man-O-War, was hobbling back, desperately hoping to cross the North Sea and return to safety.  That was not to be their fate.  While John and Keene parachuted to safety, to be betrayed by Nazi sympathizers and imprisoned in German stalags until World War II ended in 1945, their eight crewmen were shot as they drifted down over the fields near the Waal River.  While the Nazi’s at first refused to let the Dutch villagers care for the dead airmen, they ultimately let the men be buried in the dark of night to prevent any show of sympathy from the Opijnen people.  (To counter this, the morning light revealed that the crudely dug graves had been covered with flowers!)  After the war, at the request of the villagers, the eight men came to rest in the churchyard cemetery in the village of Opijnen instead of being reburied at the American cemetery in Margraten.  Every May since 1949, the American Women’s Club of Amsterdam has commemorated the sacrifices these men made and have honored not only them, but the brave and devoted villagers who have cared for our fellow Americans since 1943.  (Read more at www.awca.nl and click on History/Opijnen.)

With that history in mind, we move to the year 2000.  That’s when I was privileged to become acquainted with John and Keene, who had not been in contact with the AWCA since unveiling the Opijnen churchyard monument in 1983.  As AWCA President preparing for the bi-decadienal Opijnen memorial service, I had the opportunity to read letters from both men to the guests gathered in the church at Opijnen.  And from there, friendships grew, sparked by big ideas from them and former Neerijnen (community of 11 villages, including Opijnen) mayor, Ton Jansen.  At the 2000 service, Mayor Jansen spoke of his dream to name streets for the eight airmen in a planned housing development so future generations would know this story of bravery.  When the plans became firm in 2002, I informed John and Keene, and with their wives, they offered to donate money to show their gratitude to Opijnen (as did the AWCA). Mayor Jansen proposed that a monument be built to explain why all the streets have non-Dutch names.  I had the honor of participating in the planning session to name the streets, and while there were technically just four streets, we not only managed to subdivide them into eights streets, but at my request, Brucestraat and McCammonplein were also incorporated.  Sadly, Keene McCammon passed away October 2003 and could not join John and Mayor Jansen when they unveiled the street signs May 4, 2004.  And, even though John’s beloved wife Eunice passed away April 4, 2006, John (with his foot in a cast) and his children returned to Opijnen.  They were joined by Keene’s widow, Bonney Jean, and son, Keene, and pilot Keene’s sister, Eloise, and her daughter, Lois, to unveil the impressive monument on McCammonplein.  With a Marine Honor Guard in attendance, 3,500 bricks depicting the shadow of a B-17 flying overhead, and the raised monument replicating the plane’s stabilizer (with inscriptions in Dutch and English) were unveiled.  The two U.S. flags that covered the stabilizer had flown over the U.S. Capitol and were presented to John and Bonney Jean.  For those who attended these ceremonies in 2004 and 2006, the real meanings of patriotism, courage, sacrifice and peace burn more brightly, memories engraved forever.  As John so often said, “Freedom is not free.”

And this is the man I want to memorialize.  As past U.S. Consul General and AWCA Honorary President (2003-2006), Michele Thoren Bond, reflected in her response to John’s passing, “What a good man he was, so kind and gentle and modest.  I will never forget his voice and his words on the bus tour during his last visit to Opijnen, when we were stopped at the spot where his parachute came down, and he described the crash and its aftermath.   Though he spoke softly, the images he evoked were so indelible and vivid it seemed the rest of us were taken back with him to that terrible period of Nazi occupation.  He was truly an outstanding example of the Greatest Generation.” 

For me, John was the kind of friend who comes along once in a lifetime.  I still have his first e-mail: an AWCA website feedback form from March 2000 to which I responded.  And now, as Opijnen Memorial Service Coordinator all these years with Lucy Correll, my Opijnen file has hundreds and hundreds of e-mails, many from John.  He liked to forward “passalongs” too, and you know, you can tell a lot about someone by what s/he passes along.  And, unlike Keene who had enormous difficulty his whole life with what happened in Opijnen, John wanted to make everything better for having had that experience.  John had energy and passion that anyone half his age would envy.  Two days before his July 27 stroke, he sent his last e-mail covering a range of subjects, from investigating Google Earth to see where I’d sent my vacation postcard from, to the Bruce family reunion planned July 29, to hoping to see my parents before they moved away from Florida, to taking his great-grandson to buy the new Harry Potter  John was a shining light; an inspiration; a beacon of optimism; deeply in love with his wife whom he desperately missed these past 16 months; a proud and devoted father cherished by his children, their children and their children; an active patriot, veteran and volunteer; a loyal, supportive and generous person who understood the gifts of happiness and unconditional friendship.  I had the good fortune to be able to intersperse my seven-plus years of cyber exchanges with four visits.  And with all those memories, photos and electronic dialogue, I can’t imagine starting my computer knowing there will never be another e-mail from “stalag3”.  book, to a letter from the Opijnen Mayor in the 1950’s he found and would make sure he’d send (and retype if necessary!) if I didn’t already have it in the AWCA Opijnen files.

In memory of John, this poem he sent in April 2002 (and attributed to Edgar A. Guest):  

"Blow gently, winds of May.
Shine softly, summer sun.
Our heroes sleep today,
Their duty nobly done."