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JetScootr t1_je657gw wrote

Reply to comment by buntopolis in TIL Early drones were developed during the First World War. These radio controlled planes were primarily for target practice but by 1942 a drone with a built in TV camera was capable of delivering a torpedo to a ship 20 miles from the controller. by jamescookenotthatone

Dad said they weren't allowed to talk about it then, but when he was telling me, it was because my brother had a RC model plane that Dad said was about the same level of tech - in a model plane a little bigger than a notebook. Dad didn't figure that the stuff he worked on was secret anymore :)

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buntopolis t1_je6d1eq wrote

Haha that’s awesome. Such a cool thing to learn about your parent. I didn’t learn much because my grandpa really didn’t like to talk about the war. He only really opened up about it after his cancer diagnosis. That’s when he told me his plane was shot down by Zeroes on patrol, the aircraft sheared in half before hitting the water - only he and the pilot survived. Floated there for over 24 hours until rescue came. Like, holy shit. Really puts my own problems into perspective there.

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bros402 t1_je75gbp wrote

You might be able to get his records from the National Archives if you are one of the lucky ones

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buntopolis t1_je7awfh wrote

Army and Air Force records - were Navy records lost in the fire too??

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bros402 t1_je7e5cx wrote

Nope - they were at a different facility. You can request them here

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