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.
The veterans are what make membership so special to me. I was on tour with our B-24 “Diamond Lil” in April and May. I met a 98-year old former B-24 pilot who was doing convoy escort duty over the Atlantic, when his plane was attacked by two Focke-Wulf Condor bombers (bombers attacking bombers). We got him up in the cockpit of our B-24 where he hadn’t been for 70 years. Very memorable for me.
His story is in the May issue of Air and Space Magazine:
http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/wars-oddest-dogfight-180954663/