Finally he decided to go to the frontlines because he needed to feel useful and to defend his country — it was so important for him. It's about the culture. It's not really about politics. It's about the freedom of his country.

Everyone worked day and night. People literally collapsed from fatigue and lack of sleep. But everyone did all he could at his post- sometimes even the impossible. Driven by a feeling of personal responsibility for the fate of Moscow, the fate of the homeland, generals and staff officers, commanders and political commissars of all ranks demonstrated unprecedented energy and dedication in seeking to organize ground and aerial reconnaissance, the firm control of all forces and a steady flow of supplies, and in promoting political and party work, to raise the morale of troops and to inculcate into every soldier a confidence in his own strength and in the inevitable defeat of the enemy on the approaches to Moscow.

In the reckless phrase of the confirmed joiner in the fight for whatever relief oppressed humanity was fighting for, I had volunteered "to be useful wherever and however I could best serve," and was drafted into a Communist outfit all unknowing; this no doubt because my name was on the list of contributors to funds in aid of Sacco and Vanzetti for several years. Even from Mexico, I sent what bits of money I could, when I could, to whatever group solicited at the moment: I never inquired as to the shades of political belief because that was not what was important to me in that cause, which concerned common humanity.

I believe in freedom, deeply believe in it. I believed as a free man it was my duty- and I'm not Jewish- tbut I think it was my duty to help the Jews be freed of a son of a bitch like Hitler. That's why I deserted and went to Canada: to fight against Hitler. I've fought in three wars, and volunteered for all of them because I believed as a free man it was my duty to help others under the attack of tyranny. Just as simple as that. Now, I'm so damn old I can't do it. But that's my belief: if free men don't help others to retain or regain our freedom, then we'll lose in the final analysis.

There were times I felt like throwing in the towel but, I liked the idea of serving my country, and at the back of my mind, I also wanted to see myself in the cockpit of a military plane

Personally, I don’t think we had a sense of mission early in the 1930s. The world had been made safe for democracy not too long before, and there seemed no chance of a war. We weren’t conscious of Hitler. I happened to be in the Philippines during those times, and we had a bomb squadron, a fighter squadron, an observation squadron, and a pursuit squadron over there. We flew around the islands and did our training because that’s what you did in peacetime. I know that we didn’t have a sense of purpose at that time. We didn’t see anything on the horizon; we weren’t worried about anything. We were just worried about getting enough airplanes to fly, and we were worried about getting our flying done.