She’s been flying with the CAF since 1971, when she was pulled out of the desert and restored. Our squadron’s mission is to keep the airplanes flying, and that takes a lot of effort. But when you see a veteran coming up to the planes with tears in their eyes, you know its worth the effort.
That day in ‘82 they had a B17 there at Islip (actually Long Island MacArthur) as well. Huge crowds showed up. I mean huge. I saw plenty of the following that day:
The old men were noticeably suddenly taken aback upon getting close to the war birds. They’d go dead still as they stared at the plane, apparently fighting sudden, unexpected emotion. Their grandkids would be hopping up and down excitedly asking “You FLEW on that, Grandpa”? And Grandpa would be trying to take a breath without bursting into tears.
Based upon the things I overheard there that day I’d say most of the families had had no idea what grandpa had done during the war and were surprised to learn that he’d had a daily familiarity with such machines.
After the war those old guys just kept their mouths shut and got on with life.