I don’t know about the PBY, but i was just last night thinking a similar thought about WW2 veterans.
In the late 1970s, i was working at an electronics surplus store in Seattle, and i met and talked with

people with interesting stories. Like the fellow who was an arty spotter in a Navy plane, observing

hits on some Japanese held island….I recall some decades before that, i spoke with a man who was

still working, and had been on 2 ships sunk in WW1. Now that i have the time, being retired, these

sources are no longer there. I would / should have asked my father many more questions about the

North Africa compaign.

-Hue Miller