This is a free coloring pages blog.
Today's new drawings are of my father...
who was a B-24 Bomber pilot in World War II.
Lt. Melvin A. Lyman B-24 Bomber Pilot
Lt. Lyman with B-24
Melvin Anderson Lyman was a farm boy who grew up in Delta, Utah, USA. In 1941, after the USA entered World War II, he and his two best friends volunteered to become pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Sadly, his two friends did not survive the war.
Dad, (Melvin A. Lyman was my father) DID survive the war. He flew 13 combat missions and he even survived a crash-landing of his B-24 Bomber. He told his kids when we were growing up, that he couldn't stand the thought that he was dropping bombs on kids. He said that he should be teaching those kids the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not dropping bombs on them.
After the war, Dad went to the mountains to think and pray about his future. He had already gone to two years of college and was trying to decide what to do next. His mother died during the war and Dad always thought it was at least partly because of an incompetent doctor who tried to treat her. After his day in the mountains above Oak City, Utah, my future father felt inspired to go to the University of Utah on the G.I. Bill and become a doctor.
Dr. Lyman MD did post-medical school training in family medicine and in general surgery. He went on, in the course of a 40+ year career, to deliver thousands of babies and save many lives. He also served in our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as a 70. At the time a 70 was a man who did local missionary work.
Dad purchased a farm to teach his many children how to work. I asked him once why he raised cattle when he sometimes lost money doing it. His answer was something like: "I was raising children, not cows." All of Dad's kids, male and female, worked hard on that farm. And working the farm helped connect us to Nature. I credit part of my interest in Science to that work and play we did on the farm.
Today would have been Dad's 99th birthday. He passed over two decades ago, but his legacy lives on in his kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, and great-great-grandkids. His legacy also lives on in other work he did. He started a non-denominational medical mission in Guatemala. I went to 6 months of 1st grade there. I eventually served a Spanish speaking mission and worked for years as a Bi-lingual and ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Then I switched to teaching Jr. High Science... and ran several after school clubs.
Dad also has many other descendants who have done and continue to do much good in the world. There are several of his descendants who are teachers, there is a physician, builders, nurses, social workers, finance managers, painting contractors, artistic painters, singers, musicians, computer scientists, engineers and other careers I can't think of right now... and the most important roles of all, many of us are spouses, parents, and grandparents.
These drawings can be found by clicking the buttons labeled "Vehicles and Military Vehicles," and /or clicking on the button labeled "Religious." I don't have a portraits or people list.
One final short true story: Dad (Lt. Lyman) was leading a squadron of B-24s on a mission and he felt the Spirit tell him to have all the planes spread out a bit before the squadron flew into a cloud bank. Dad did so and all the squadron flew out the other side of the cloud bank. Dad (Lt. Lyman) got chewed out for spreading the squadron out... but he knew he had done the right thing.
One of Dad's friends or acquaintances from Oak City (a town near Delta) was killed on what was supposed to be his last mission before returning home. His squadron flew into a cloud bank and a rookie pilot must have made a mistake because both planes collided and fell out of the sky with no parachutes. So Dad's separating the planes by a bit possibly saved lives... maybe even his own. Personally, I am glad he listened to the Spirit because I get to be here.
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