MDFrench
A-List Customer
- Messages
- 420
Hey all,
Just got back from the Atlanta Air Show - and yeah, everyone and their mother was there to see the Blue Angels. Well, they were good, but the few warbirds there were better. The Dixie Wing showed up with their C-45 Expeditor, Japanese Kate and that other one, the Navy dive bomber trainer and the SBD Dauntless. The B-25 Mitchell Panchito was also there. (Priestyboy! You weren't there again! I missed you at the WWII day a week ago and now you're AWOL again - Am I going to have to join the CAF to finally meet you?!:eusa_doh: )
I digress. Anyway, I was all decked out in my "close enough" USAAF gear and people were once again asking me, "Are you the pilot?" As a T-6 did crazy aerobatics overhead, I was sitting in the cockpit of the SBD! Later, the pilots of the B-25 and I had lunch together. After that, something very cool happened.
A woman named Pam came up to me and asked me if I was with the B-25 guys. I said "No," and she started asking me if the B-25J was another kind of airplane she said was called a J-something. She was confused, but obviously on a mission. Ms. Pressmore came to the air show with an envelope with numbers scribbled on the back, the names of airplanes her uncle, Walter Young, flew in the war. She didn’t know what planes they were when he told them to her over the phone and she didn’t expect to find his combat airplane waiting for her. I realized the list she had on the envelope was written in the order he told them to her, the order he TRAINED in them, ending with the SBD!
When I told her that, I told her what the SBD was and that it was rare. She said, "Oh, I guess there's not an SBD here is there..." I replied, "The SBD is very rare. There are only three that fly in the world...and one of them is right behind you."
I admit, I set her up a bit, b/c the SBD was 100 feet over her shoulder facing her back, but you should have seen her eyes light up! She was all smiles as she sat in the cockpit of the Dixie Wing’s SBD Dauntless dive bomber saying, "Get a picture! I can't wait to show my uncle!"
What are the odds???? I was really happy she was so lucky today. It was a good day.
Just got back from the Atlanta Air Show - and yeah, everyone and their mother was there to see the Blue Angels. Well, they were good, but the few warbirds there were better. The Dixie Wing showed up with their C-45 Expeditor, Japanese Kate and that other one, the Navy dive bomber trainer and the SBD Dauntless. The B-25 Mitchell Panchito was also there. (Priestyboy! You weren't there again! I missed you at the WWII day a week ago and now you're AWOL again - Am I going to have to join the CAF to finally meet you?!:eusa_doh: )
I digress. Anyway, I was all decked out in my "close enough" USAAF gear and people were once again asking me, "Are you the pilot?" As a T-6 did crazy aerobatics overhead, I was sitting in the cockpit of the SBD! Later, the pilots of the B-25 and I had lunch together. After that, something very cool happened.
A woman named Pam came up to me and asked me if I was with the B-25 guys. I said "No," and she started asking me if the B-25J was another kind of airplane she said was called a J-something. She was confused, but obviously on a mission. Ms. Pressmore came to the air show with an envelope with numbers scribbled on the back, the names of airplanes her uncle, Walter Young, flew in the war. She didn’t know what planes they were when he told them to her over the phone and she didn’t expect to find his combat airplane waiting for her. I realized the list she had on the envelope was written in the order he told them to her, the order he TRAINED in them, ending with the SBD!
When I told her that, I told her what the SBD was and that it was rare. She said, "Oh, I guess there's not an SBD here is there..." I replied, "The SBD is very rare. There are only three that fly in the world...and one of them is right behind you."
I admit, I set her up a bit, b/c the SBD was 100 feet over her shoulder facing her back, but you should have seen her eyes light up! She was all smiles as she sat in the cockpit of the Dixie Wing’s SBD Dauntless dive bomber saying, "Get a picture! I can't wait to show my uncle!"
What are the odds???? I was really happy she was so lucky today. It was a good day.
