In civilian life Thaddeus was a musician, a graduate of the Julliard School, who wrote music, organized and conducted concerts in the NYC area, researched medieval and renaissance music, taught piano and inspired scores of children to love music.
His favorite composers were Bach and Beethoven. He also had a strong interest in literature, art and architecture. He died in 1977.
Toward the end of his life he spent summers in Tuscany over which missions were flown in the war and found from the locals that seeing the USAF planes flying above was a source of hope to them in the dark hours of the war.
To him the war was a terrifying experience over unknown territory, lost, with cloud cover, not knowing whether the plane was dropping bombs on the right target.
He said he once had to parachute out of a disabled B-24 with the rest of the crew who made it, except for the pilot who, as he was the last to leave, didn't have enough altitude to open his parachute.
He told me flew in the "Bottoms Up," and went over the Ploesti oil fields.
He was a navigator but due to air sickness was eventually grounded and gave lectures to airmen who arrived at the base.
Information courtesy of David Cylkowski, son of Thaddeus Cylkowski
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