Posted on 05/27/2006 11:23:17 AM PDT by fgoodwin
World War II bomber revived as 'living memorial'
http://www.portales-news.com/engine.pl?station=portales&template=storyfull.html&id=8117 http://tinyurl.com/fu9fh
By Marlena Hartz: Freedom Newspapers marlena_hartz@link.freedom.com Created on: May 27, 2006 - 6:13AM - 8117
In a San Antonio junkyard, the B-25 Pacific Prowler idled, bird nests and cobwebs cluttering her insides. That was until Jim Terry rescued her.
Three years ago, the retired Air Force pilot restored the famous World War II bomber, built in August 1944.
“It was a ghost,” said Terry, a Fort Worth, Texas, resident.
No longer, however, is the plane a ghost. Its metal exterior glints in the sunlight, oiled for the brilliant shine. When the plane starts, it may rumble like angry lawn mower, but it flies.
“I knew it would fly again,” said Terry, who spent a winter restoring the bomber with memories of his uncle, who fought in World War II, floating in his mind.
Terry and his Pacific Prowler jump from air show to air show. The plane and the pilot are part of the Cannon Air Force Base Air Expo 2006. But the greatest of their treasures is hidden.
The underbelly of the plane is marked with the signatures of roughly 100 men who flew the boxy plane in World War II. Among them are the handwritten stamps of a Tuskegee airman and a Japanese man who claimed a B-25 bombed his boyhood home, Terry said.
“We want to make the plane a living memorial to the men who fought in World War II,” Terry said, under the shadow of the B-25.
“There is no way to express how I feel about this plane.”
The pilot hopes World War II veterans of eastern New Mexico will come to see the plane. Those who flew B-25s, he invites to add their mark to the underbelly of his “living memorial.”
By the numbers
4,000 maximum bomb load in pounds 275 maximum speed in miles per hour 140 gallons of fuel per hour of flight 1,500 Normal altitude in feet 67 wing span in feet 2,100 weight in pounds when in empty 670 fuel capacity in U.S. gallons
— Compiled by Marlena Hartz
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