Bravery and Honor - A Veterans Day Story

This story was sent to me by my friend Rudy Rust, who was conscripted into the German army when he was fifteen years old, during WWII. It's about the way men think about bravery and honor, particularly in wartime. See if you think it is relevant to us today.

Bravery & Honor We Don't See Anymore

If you look carefully at the B-17 in this painting, you'll see how shot up it is. It was ready to fall out of the sky. You'll also see there's a German ME-109 fighter next to it. Here's the story behind this picture:

B-17 pilot Charlie Brown (yes, that's his real name) was flying his Flying Fortress with the 379th Bomber Group from Kimbolton, England. His plane, nicknamed "Ye Old Pub" was badly damaged by German FLAK and other artillery. The compass was damaged and they were actually headed in the wrong direction, deeper into enemy territory. As the plane flew over a German airfield, German pilot Franz Stigler was given orders to take off and shoot the British bomber down.

As Stigler neared the Flying Fortress, he couldn't believe what he saw. He "had never seen a plane in such a bad state." The tail and rear section were severely damaged, and the tail gunner was wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were holes throughout the entire plane.

Although he had plenty of ammunition, Franz flew over beside the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, who was clearly scared and struggling to control his damaged and bloodied plane. When he became aware that they had no idea where they were heading, Franz waved at Charlie Brown to turn 180 degrees around. He then escorted the stricken plane out to and slightly over the North Sea toward England. He saluted Charlie Brown and turned back toward Europe. When he landed he told his commander he had shot the plane down over the sea. He never told the truth to anyone. Charlie Brown and his remaining crew were debriefed and told their story, but were ordered never to talk about it.

More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who had saved his crew. After years of research, he found Franz Stigler, who had never spoken of the incident, even at his post-war reunions. The two pilots met in the US at a 379th Bomber group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive because Franz never fired his guns on that day.

When asked why he didn't shoot them down, Stigler said, "I didn't have the heart to finish those brave men. I flew beside them for a long time. They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do that. I could not have shot at them. It would have been the same as shooting a man in a parachute."

Both Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler died in 2008. Both will be remembered as brave and honorable men.

(l to r) German ace Franz Stigler, artist Ernie Boyett, and B-17 pilot Charlie Brown

Franz Stigler / Charlie Brown

Berlin - The Capitol of Freedom Twenty Years Later

Today marks 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the precursor to the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.

As a veteran of the occupied city of Berlin in the end of the 1980's, I would like to salute all of my colleagues and the many who went before us in preserving freedom within the Divided City and ultimately extending it to the East German Capitol and into all of Eastern Europe, liberating millions of people who had lived for decades behind the Iron Curtain.

After 20 years, the Cold War is to my children what WWII was to me growing up. It is history. But it remains a very real history to anyone who drove past the Soviet guards and winding concrete barriers at Checkpoint Charlie, through the "protective" wall that Walter Ulbricht declared "no one had any intention of building." It is a very real history to the many Eastern Europeans who were born during those years and knew nothing else.

By November 9, 1989, almost ten percent of the East German population had officially applied for exit visas. And on that date, they were all granted. After watching West German television (three channels were received by about 80% of the East Germans) for almost 40 years, the contrast of the black-and-white version of life gave way to a colorful reality beyond the ten-inch screen in the corner of the apartment.

Seven years earlier, the Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan, presciently declared that Marxism-Leninism was headed for the "ash heap of history," and two years before the wall fell, he made his now-famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech at the Brandenburg Gate. As one of the thousands of people in the audience along Unter den Linden that day, I must say that although it was powerful, its effect was still unimagined by most.

The wall came down in a quiet revolution, without a shot being fired. But in truth, many shots had been fired prior to November 9, 1989. The American forces in Berlin numbered under 10,000 in the face of 350,000 Russians and 150,000 East Germans. There were 382 American soldiers killed during the Cold War, one of whom, Major Arthur Nicholson, was shot in Ludwigslust by a Soviet sniper the year before our group arrived in Berlin. That same year, the LaBelle disco in downtown Berlin was blown up by Libyan terrorists. While 5,000 people successfully escaped into West Berlin in the 28 years the wall divided the city, almost 1,000 were killed in the attempt along the entire Iron Curtain.

In 1990, the year after the Wall fell, Senator Bob Dole made a speech at Capitol Hill that dovetails with Ronald Reagan's of three years before: "You have won the Cold War. Your underappreciated valor helped topple the Berlin Wall, and bring down dictators the world over... For the past four decades the world behind the Iron Curtain... looked to Americans for hope, and America looked to you to get the job done. Today, the free world says thank you."

And now, twenty years after the fall, Checkpoint Charlie remains a museum. May it stay that way.

(Here's a link to a great slideshow from Google.)

- I've added this excellent five-minute tribute video sent from one of my Field Station colleagues.

The Art of the (Amazon/Zappos) Deal

Here's a memo out today from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh about his commitment to keeping his business-as-usual approach, and at the same time using Amazon to take Zappos to the next level.

The deal between the two online retailers was finalized over the Halloween weekend. If you missed it earlier last month, here's a link to my ten-question interview with Tony in TechRepublic.

Ten Questions with a Driven Climber: CIO John Golden

My newest IT leadership interview with CIO John Golden is out today in TechRepublic. Along with driving the technology decisions behind insurance giant CNA, John also went through 23 surgeries to allow him to walk. Then, instead of just walking, he decided his rehabilitation also ought to include an expedition to the top of Mount Everest, and a couple of the other significant peaks in the world along the way.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Thanks to John for sharing his inspirational story and for creating the LiveActive Foundation. Watch for the full version to come out on the Discovery Channel next month.

VW is having fun with video marketing

In "The Illustrated Man," Ray Bradbury describes videos and beer becoming the new ersatz for books and wine.

A year after its debut, YouTube was acquired by Google. Three years later, traffic is at over a billion videos - per day, that is. At the top of the list is: Charlie the finger-biter (here's an article with a complete list of the top ten).

What does this mean for business? The world's biggest company (VW) has undoubtedly made some significant investments in marketing distribution, but what about a shift toward content? What if, instead of investing a much smaller amount in creating a one-page ad (paying the graphic designer, photographer, and copywriter) and then paying Car and Driver to print it, the distribution were free? The savings could go toward a more elaborate message like "we are all about using 'fun' to influence people's behavior," and then depend on the viral spread to get over three million views in its first week at no cost.

Good idea.

The Newspaper Museum

Back in the day, I was one of those entrepreneurial urchins with a burlap sack over my shoulder taking a daily walk through the neighborhood to unload sheets of inked paper on people's doorsteps. I still see a paper on the sidewalk every once in awhile but those days are likely numbered. As Conde-Nast sheds 68-year old Gourmet Magazine this week, Jim Tyree's solo bid appears to be the last hope for the Sun-Times.

Is that kind of shift in the crystal ball for phone carriers as well, to what David Pogue calls "the right thing?" AT&T has announced it will allow VOIP as a service on its iPhones, which will certainly spread to Palm and other smartphones faster than a gps app. Even more than GoogleVoice, this development promises at the very least to change the way we think about minutes and calling plans.

Ten Questions with Tony Hsieh of Zappos

OK, let's dig in our heels and get Q4 off to a great start. Tony Hsieh of Zappos has some valuable insights to offer us that point to his success with Zappos as a result of a simple focus on great customer service, and not being distracted by comparisons.

Whether or not you're selling millions of pairs of shoes and partnering up with Amazon, delivering customer happiness is a goal all of us in business ought to be shooting for. Frankly, this economy demands it. Link here to read the full interview in today's TechRepublic.