Posted on 07/14/2016 1:49:40 PM PDT by naturalman1975
A terminally ill former World War Two Spitfire engineer's 'last wish' to be reunited with the iconic plane was granted after top brass saw him looking forlornly through a fence at one from his wheelchair.
Ken Farlow, 95, was an electrical engineer during the war, carrying out vital work to keep Spitfires and Hurricanes in the air in Syria and Palestine.
But after being diagnosed with terminal colon cancer, the father-of-three asked daughter Helen if he 'could see a Spitfire - one last time'.
Helen, 52, took him to Gloucestershire Airport where the vintage planes were being maintained by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight crew.
She posted a poignant photo of the RAF veteran on Facebook as Mr Farlow sat in his wheelchair gazing through the fence at the striking aircraft on the runway.
The heartwarming image was spotted by the airport director of operations - who was so moved he invited him for a VIP visit.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Great post. Those guys had what it took. Hopefully we will too.
Good for him, and good for everyone that helped to make it happen.
Great story. I read once that the Hurricane’s aluminum-and-fabric design enabled World War I veteran factory workers and mechanics to work on them without having to be retrained, freeing up other people to work on the all-metal Spits. In the Battle of Britain, the Hurricanes could take on the bombers while the Spits went after the Messerschmitts. Old England would have been lost without them.
Unfortunately the greatest generation fell asleep at the wheel regarding the protection of the constitution in the1950s through the 1960s and allowed all the leftists ideas to be planted in our country. I.wish they had rooted them out before they all became.institutionalized.
“Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Winston Churchill
Raj?
I'm kidding. Really, I am. Well, maybe.
In his autobiography, Adolph Galland mentions the famous quote in which he tells Goering “A squadron of Spitfires”, in answer to the question of what he would like.
He also said that he just said it to irritate Goering as he actually thought the ME-109 was completely equal to the spitfire.
You have powers of deduction. It wasn’t the baby boomers who put all this into motion. It goes back a bit further. A small example, LBJ was born in circa 1908.
This is not to take away from what Americans did during WWII etc.
Clearly *some* members of that generation don't deserve the label "greatest".They're the ones who taught the likes of Gerry Rubin,Bill Ayers and Obama's mother that ours is a terrible,oppressive nation.
And as we found out yesterday, FDR’s vice president (not Truman) was a commie sympathizer and chicken farmer. This stuff has been going on since well before the Boomers.
There ya go.
I'm glad that this dying World War II veteran was able to see the Spitfire fly again one more time.
Sadly true. I’ve made that same observation here several times.
After the great suffering and loss of WWII, the time of peace and suburban home-owning prosperity - kids and beer and new cars and BBQ and sports on TV - lulled our masses and Veterans into acquiescing on the leftist agenda.
As I understand it, these wonderful planes were manufactured at what today is the Jaguar XJR plant.
“what do the British call an degreed engineer designing things?”
A degreed design engineer?
What’s with the sensitivity to titles, 2nd banana? Are you a Brit?
may God bless...
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