My father served in the 8th Air Force at a time when the odds of completing a tour were about 20%. The airmen had various ways of coping with this, my father's way was to simply accept that he wasn't going to make it and just do his job as best he could.

He told me that after the war, whenever he felt down, he'd think about what a miracle it was he survived, and would feel better.

He lived to be 93.