![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3WHSWP3BXNDSHHPKQUBGZDUDMM.jpg\")
Tom Ingram and his father.(Tom Ingram)<\/p>\nTYLER, Texas (KLTV) – A Tyler man is sharing the story of his freedom fighting father. <\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I knew that he was a B-17 pilot, and he was in World War II. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s all I knew,\u201d Tom Ingram said. <\/p>\n
Ingram\u2019s dad, John, served in the 8th Air Force. A member of the greatest generation, who at the age of 18, left home to save the world. It\u2019s a part of his dad\u2019s life that Tom never knew much about. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe came home and put everything away in his footlocker and didn\u2019t talk about it anymore,\u201d Ingram said. <\/p>\n
After his dad\u2019s death in 2008, that footlocker became a treasure chest to Tom, who for the first time got to see and touch pieces of his dad\u2019s past. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was basically pretty much a pack rat,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cHe just took everything. Most of the people said they had to give it back. I guess he didn\u2019t turn it in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The items in the footlocker have since turned Ingram\u2019s Tyler apartment into a museum. At their grandparent\u2019s house, Tom\u2019s brother also found letters written by his dad to his parents back home. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can almost feel him growing up,\u201d Ingram said about the letters. \u201cHe started signing them with,\u201d keep me flying. Love, son.\u2019” <\/p>\n
\u201cKeep Me Flying!\u201d is the title of the book Tom put together using the letters and an interview his dad gave in his 70s about his time in the service. It\u2019s a book Tom said his dad always talked about writing – but never did. A book about the highs and lows. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a hard time talking about the war,\u201d Ingram said. <\/p>\n
Tom Ingram and his father.(Tom Ingram)<\/p>\n
This report is as much about Tom Ingram as it is about his dad, whose life story could have just faded away, if not for his son.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish he (dad) was alive to see this,\u201d he said. \u201cI think he would have liked it. I really do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KLTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – A Tyler man is sharing the story of his freedom fighting father. \u201cGrowing up,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":93198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-93197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114917694823407707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}