HINDSIGHT

Published 1:41 pm Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Soft light filtered through the delicate drapes of Denver Canaday’s kitchen just before noon. A balanced man surrounded by a balanced room. His restful, attentive gaze and clasped hands an outward expression of the perspective attained from living a life beyond explanation.

Canaday, now 85, joined the Army Air Corps at 19. A kid from an Indiana farm turned army gunner in June 1942. Eight bombing missions in, after his plane was hit, Canaday found himself parachuting, for the first time, into France. Walking 75 miles on a heel worn to the bone, he and several others hustled over the Pyrenees to Spain only to be captured and imprisoned. Two months later he was set free.

Like so many who lived and fought in World War II, Canaday’s connection to his past is no less potent or vivid than it is for veterans of more recent wars. There is a palpable sense of resolution and order in hindsight witnessed.