17th Annual Ford Airport Day & Veterans Tribute

[Yooper Rocketman]

Well, day one of two in the books for our Annual Ford Airport Day at KIMT.  EAA committed to bring their newly completed (restoration) B-25 in for our event.  Fog this morning hampered anyone getting in before our 11 AM veterans tribute.  With nothing on the ramp for airplanes, I agreed to taxi the Lancair up as a backdrop to the actual ceremony.  Although not a warbird, it makes lots of noise and is cute.  A lot of people spent some time looking at it after the ceremony was over.  We had the local high school band, a small contingency of the local motorcycle Honor Guard, and the Legion Post presenting colors.  A key note speaker, a Nam Vet and 25 year member of our county board (and strong supporter of our airport) presented a very nice "veterans themed" speech.  We then had a projector and screen complimenting our PA System that played a 6 minute video of Sam Elliot speaking at a recorded event on behalf of a vet from the Normandy Invasion.  Their were some cloudy eyes after that one.  https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-pty-pty_maps&hsimp=yhs-pty_maps&hspart=pty&p=sam+elliot+speech+about+lambert+veteran#id=1&vid=8ab16e2ae9a328ab3f5904bc50d9f40c&action=click

So after the program a vet came forward that had flown the B-25 in WWII, 34 missions to be exact.  Holy crap was he sharp and shared with several of us many of his ventures.  We always provide a free lunch for vets after the program and he was hoping to see a B-25 ONE LAST TIME (his words, not mine).  I suppose at 93, living in the U.P., there's not too many opportunities to see WWII war birds.  So, we were in constant communication with Sean Elliot from EAA on when they might launch, as they were waiting for low ceilings in Oshkosh, along the route, and at Iron Mountain to rise to reasonable VFR conditions.  I hung out with the vet and his family, hoping to keep his interest enough to stick around until it arrived.  They had driven from Escanaba, about an hour away.  We got word from the B-25 crew they had wheels up about the time I thought they would leave, so they waited another 45 minutes for the plane to arrive.  The expression on his face (I sat next to him as the B-25 did a standard military fly over and break into the pattern) as it taxied in ...... priceless.  You could see the gears turning in his head, probably thinking about his days back in 1944-1945 flying that bird.

Once shut down he and his family came up near the plane.  He had his logbook and a printed book he wrote for his family (at their request) with him, sharing these items with Sean and the rest of the B-25 crew.  He had one picture of serious wing damage from a tree doing low level bombing....... yes, I said a tree.  And they flew it back to base.  I had the privilege to hear many of his stories as we waited, and study his log book (key pages to be submitted later when I get time).  It was an absolutely amazing read!!!  Islands and bases I've only heard about from the History Channel and books I've read about the South Pacific during WWII.  The B-25 crew was mesmerized with him.  He signed a copy of the book and gave it to Sean and his son Ryan.  They were pretty honored!!

We shot many pictures and then he poked his head in through the bomb bays.  I'm sure a step back in time for him to look up there.  Then Sean insisted he come around to the back and this particular B-25 has an air stair system, an added feature after the war during it's second life.  EAA had decided to keep it, as it allows more elderly vets access to the plane.  Don (our vet) starts walking up the steps and in a minute he's standing inside the plane (he arrived and was using a walker almost the entire time up until the pictures and this).  He paused for a photo op stepping back out.  His happy smile says it all!

So, as I think back about today, all the prep work our chapter does to get this event off, and now reflect on this vet's appreciation for his experience, I think YES...it's definitely worth the work!!!!!

Tom

[steingar]

Congrats Tom.

 

[MooneyMitch]

Excellent!  Thank you for sharing.

[Danb]

What a great tribute to those young men, Ford day provided a smile to some of our greatest warriors and patriots, we must salute them while there still among us