As a former Naval Flight Officer I have over 2000 hours in my log book. Not a single one of them was pilot time. The airlines are not looking for anything but pilots, so those hours are all that count.
Airlines hire pilots. Therefore, they only care about how many hours someone flew as a pilot, not as a back seater, not as a boom operator, not as a loadmaster. The airlines don't use these positions.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.