Back in 2003, I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the ‘military’ opening of Udvar-Hazy. I think there were around 3000 tickets given to active duty and retired military aviators.
A number of ‘interesting’ things happened that day, but the story I want to relate is about this airplane… Clicken to embiggen as always…
I was walking around from seeing the Enola Gay with I noticed the P-38…
Now it was a bit ‘raggedy’, to put it mildly…
But there was an old gent standing there in an Army Air Corps uniform, wearing Colonel’s insignia. I stopped and spoke to him, (if I remember correctly he said his name was Lewis, and that he’d flown ‘this’ airplane)…
It looks a bit raggedy, since it’s never been restored. According to Col. Lewis the way it looked was the way he’d last seen it. It wasn’t until I got home and looked him up, that I realized I’d been talking to a WWII Ace! His only real comment was the uniform didn’t ‘quite’ fit anymore, the pants were either too long, or he’d shrunk… He had stayed in the ‘new’ USAF, and later commanded a fighter squadron in Vietnam, but said his first love was the P-38! He died in 2006, but he was quite the gentleman, and waxed enthusiastic on the P-38, saying he loved flying it. Some info on the good colonel is HERE.
One doesn’t often get to speak with the original pilots of the old planes. What a wonderful memory!
And what a great museum! Went to visit there back in the early spring.
Rev- It is, and I cherish it.
Knucklehead- That it is!
You got to go to Udvar-Hazy’s military opening, by invite? I was never, ever that kind o’ lucky. EVER.
I have a story similar to yours about Colonel Lewis but it’s a lot more mundane. The Reader’s Digest version: So, there I was… walking around the Hill AFB museum in Utah when I stopped to admire an F-111 done up in 20th TFW livery. This ol’ guy, about my age, walks up to me and sez “That used to be my office.” “Really?” sez I… “You were at Upper Heyford? So was I!” Well, yes, he was. We then sat down and launched into a few “remember when” war stories, his stories being head and shoulders above mine. I mean, he WAS a pilot…
Cool plane, cool story.
Major envy, both the visit with the Colonel, and living within an easy drive of the museum.
A fantastic story. And I’ve always loved that P-38, just because it’s the way that it is. So many more should have been saved, even if, like this one, they were not immediately restored to museum showpieces
I’d be envious if you weren’t so generous to tell us, and humble enough not to brag.
You weren’t bragging were you?
Buck- Yep you NEVER know whom you might run across…
BP- Thanks!
WSF- Yeah, but I ALSO have to put up with the @#%^@% traffic around here!!! 🙁
Murph- You seen the P-61? Talk about beat up! 🙂
Ed- Nope.
Cool story… I have a similar one – they also had a ‘veterans’ day before it opened and I took my 2 youngest sons (about 12 and 11). As we walked up to the Enola Gay there was a small crowd with an security person which got my interest. As we walked up, standing there was a gentleman, with gray hair looking at the Enola Gay – He just looked at the plan studying it and then he said “1st time I’ve seen my plane whole since my last mission in her”. The gentleman was Col Paul Tibbets. I tried to explain the significance to the kids but I figured it went right over their heads. About 3 months later the youngest one mentioned they were talking about WWII in school and that he told his classmates had seen Col Tibbets.
Steve- We must have been there the same day, and we must have both been in the crowd around the Enola Gay. I thought Col Tibbets was in a wheel chair, so maybe I saw him later.
he was standing when i saw him… but could very well have been the same day…
Took our son, a SCPO, in uniform, to our see our friend Nate in the retirement village.
A number of elderly men introduced themselves.
One was Admiral Byrds pilot.
We would never have known, had he worn civvies.
Yep. Seen the NACA P-61…and WANT it!
On a similar note:
My wife and I visited Kennedy Space Centre in ’95.
While getting a photo with the token “Astronaut in a Space Suit” she commented how this would be a better memory than the photo with Mickey Mouse at Disney World.
A gentleman nearby overheard, and asked “You really think so?”
After being assured that she was most definitely serious, we struck up a conversation, and introduced ourselves to – Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13.
My father was a B-24 pilot. After WW2 had ended he was at the Pentagon for some reason and Col. Tibbets came up to him and introduced himself as my father was walking. I guess it was one pilot to another.
It can be a small world indeed. The Collings Foundation used to make the Chico, CA airport a regular stop on their B17/B24 tours. This was in part because Aero Union was based there, and provided a handy stop for “over-the-road” maintenance. I recall on one stop, they had the B24 up on jacks performing landing gear checks.
Anyway, when they made their stop in 2004, I was fortunate to be able to get to the airport to tour the bombers (again) on a weekday when there was no crowd. the B17 is painted in the colors of “909” from the 91st Bomb Group. By pure chance, I met a white-haired gentleman on the ramp who turned out be a B17 navigator who flew two of his missions on the original 909. We hit it off, climbed in the nose hatch, and went all the way through and out the waist door. I kept my mini-cam rolling the whole time as he reminisced. I have it all saved on DVD.
I also had the chance to chat with this gentleman more than once:
http://482nd.org/h2x-mickey
In the above article you will see mentioned John C. Morgan–
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Morgan
…who’s Medal Of Honor citation was accurately portrayed by the character Lt. Bishop in the movie “12 O’clock High”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_O%27Clock_High
My absolute favorite. Met a very spry old guy at Moffett when the Collings B-25 “Tondoleyo” was there, who reminisced about flying them in Italy and a narrow miss with a German 88 that went straight up through-and-through, just after they dropped the bomb load… He could still chuck himself right up in there through the hatch like it was yesterday.
Ed- Yep, one never knows who those ‘old’ guys and ladies are…
Murph- NO! That bird has been beat to s**t!!! NO!!!
Sendarius- GREAT Story!!! 🙂
Titan- Yep, that never goes away…
RHT- Those had to be some interesting conversations! 🙂
NC- Outstanding, and it’s like riding a bike… 😀
Great story and pictures.
I love the stories in the comments