Wings of Freedom Tour goes to Pensacola

Pensacola, FLORIDA – The public can tour and — for a price — even fly in some historic World War II-era aircraft from March 5-7.

The Wings of Freedom Tour will be at the Pensacola Aviation Center at Pensacola International Airport.

The aircraft that will be on display are the Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress,” Consolidated B-24 Liberator, and North American P-51 Mustang.

The national tour, now in its 23rd year, is sponsored by the Collings Foundation, a nonprofit educational group that supports “living history” exhibits. The tour usually visits 110 cities each year.

The cost to tour the aircraft is $12 regular admission and $6 for children 11 and younger. Tour hours are 2 to 5 p.m. on March 5; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 6; and 9 a.m. through noon on March 7.

A 30-minute flight aboard the B-17 or the B-24 is $425. A 30-minute flight aboard the P-51 Mustang is $2,200.

-pnj.com

Recovered remains of WWII airmen buried at Arlington

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) – Even for Arlington National Cemetery, Wednesday’s burial service was extraordinary: remains from nine World War II airmen shot down and killed after a successful bombing run in Papua New Guinea in 1943.

The remains, excavated from the crash site in 2001, were in a single casket because most of them could not be conclusively linked to any one airman, despite extensive testing by the Army.

It had been 68 years since Leonard Gionet’s father was shot down, and he did not expect Wednesday’s burial service to be especially emotional. After all, he was only 6 months old when his father died. But he found himself wiping tears from his eyes as he sat next to his 90-year-old mother, thinking about his childhood and how he had tried to piece together what his dad was like from family conversations.

“I had kind of buried it all. I was surprised by all the emotions that surfaced,” he said after the ceremony.

Wednesday’s burial brings a close to the remarkable story of the Naughty but Nice, a B-17 Flying Fortress that was shot down in 1943 and earned its nickname from a painting of a scantily clad woman on its side. Nine of the 10 airmen on board were killed and buried in unmarked graves. The lone survivor, Lt. Jose Holguin, was taken as a Japanese prisoner of war but made it his mission after the war to find his lost colleagues.

“I don’t want to call it survivor’s guilt. I would call it a survivor’s mission,” said Holguin’s son, Curt Holguin, who attended Wednesday’s service. “He returned home and they didn’t. His mission became to get them home.”

The elder Holguin traveled back to Papua New Guinea several times in the 1980s and found parts of the B-17 plane. In 1985, the Army exhumed remains that had been buried as “unknown” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu after they were recovered from Papua New Guinea after the war.

Tests done at the time positively identified remains from five of the nine who were killed: 2nd Lt. Herman H. Knott, 2nd Lt. Francis G. Peattie, Staff Sgt. Henry Garcia, Staff Sgt. Robert E. Griebel and Staff Sgt. Pace P. Payne.

The Army did further excavations near the crash site in 2001 and found additional human remains. More advanced tests were done, but did not conclusively link those remains to any of the remaining four from the Naughty but Nice: Tech Sgt. Robert L. Christopherson, Tech Sgt. Leonard A. Gionet, 1st Lt. William Sarsfield and 2nd Lt. Charles E. Trimingham.

But the Army is confident that the remains belong to the nine dead airmen, in part based on where they were found and other tests that were done.

Those remains were buried Wednesday in a single casket at Arlington, during a service with full military honors. Relatives of the four who had not previously been identified were presented with U.S. flags.

“After nearly 70 years, these men haven’t been forgotten and their mission is getting its due respect,” said L. Edward Johnson of Pebble Beach, Calif., who accepted the flag for his family on behalf of his uncle, co-pilot Charles Trimingham.

Gionet, 68, who lives in Portland, Ore., said it was about a year ago that he learned his father’s remains had been recovered. Somewhat amazingly, he said he received a knock on the door from an Army colonel and sergeant just after he had finished watching a movie called “The Messenger” where the main character is an officer assigned to notify family members when their loved ones have been killed in action.

The news came as a shock – Gionet said he had been unaware of the excavations that had recovered his father’s remains.

“I think it’s something where I’ll be able to close that chapter of my life,” Gionet said of the ceremony.

Gionet’s mother, Della Edwards, who became a widow at age 22 when the elder Gionet was shot down, traveled from Sacramento for the ceremony.

She recalled the years where she held hope after her husband was declared missing that he was still alive, and remembered her husband as an eternal optimist.

“He changed me from being a pessimist to an optimist. By the time he left (for the Pacific theater) he had convinced me that nothing bad would happen to him,” Edwards said. “He told me, `A bad penny always comes back.”‘

At the end of World War II, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. More than 73,000 remain unaccounted for.

 

-bakersfieldnow.com

WWII bombers in Ogden keep memories and history alive

OGDEN — The B-17 Flying Fortress “Sentimental Journey” and B-25 Mitchell “Maid in the Shade” from the Commemorative Air Force Arizona Wing Aviation Museum are on display in Ogden this week, and the public can experience flying in these aircrafts first-hand.

For pilot Jim Kimmel, getting to fly the B-17G gives him a closer feel for what his father went through as a B-17 pilot.

“I’ve flown this airplane with my father three times with him at the controls,” he said. “That’s payback enough for me. I mean, how many people can say that they flew with their father in the aircraft that their father went to combat in?”

The 1944 “Sentimental Journey” is only one of several restored, flying B-17 bombers in the U.S. Only a handful of these rare birds are still flying in the world.

Kimmel volunteers his time for several months each year to help keep the memories and history alive. The mobile museum draws plenty of onlookers, including veterans like Ray Hobbs, a former B-17 pilot.

“When you hear the plane, it’s just as sweet as Beethoven’s symphony to hear those engines,” he said.

For Gunther Stoecke his memories come from another side of history. He comes all the way from Berlin, Germany, to volunteer each year. He still remembers having his hometown bombed as a child.

“There was no hate for anyone, I only know the Americans as friends,” he said. “I remember the Berlin airlift that saved us. During this time, the Berliner learned to never take freedom for granted.”

Getting to hear those stories and share them with others is what Kimmel says makes all his donated time worthwhile. If people can continue to learn from the past, he said the future can continue to look brighter.

“We’re not trying to glorify war, we’re trying to honor the veterans who participated in World War II and made those big sacrifices,” he explained.

Maintaining these bombers is not cheap, costing about $2,500 a day. Volunteers do it, both for the veterans who are still around and for the younger generations who can learn from the history behind it.

The mobile museum makes stops all over the U.S. to give people a rare look at pieces of aviation history. The war planes will be in Ogden until Sept. 25. The cost for a flight on the B-17 starts at $425 per person, for the B-25 it starts at $395. The planes take off in the early morning, and then stay on the ground for people to come see afterward. After that, the flying museum will be at the Vernal Regional Airport.

 

-ksl.com

Spirits soar as vets fly with WWII warbirds

On Friday, Chrisanthon, 86, of Ocean City flew in a B-24, the type of Army Air Force airplane he was trained in as a bombadier during World War II.

“This was on his bucket list,” said Chrisanthon’s daughter-in-law, Monica, 55, after he stepped off the bomber when it landed at Monmouth Executive Airport, here.

“You don’t know how much this means to him,” said Chrisanthon’s wife, Nikki, 86. “My husband is going to be talking about this for the rest of his life.”

The Collings Foundation, a Massachusetts-based, non-profit organization, provided the free flight as it moved its 22nd annual Wings of Freedom Tour from Cape May County Airport to Monmouth Executive.

This living-history, World War II aviation exhibit continues at Monmouth Executive through Monday with three restored planes on display and flights – the B-24 Liberator; the B-17 Flying Fortress, also a bomber; and P-51C Mustang, an escort fighter to the bombers known as their “little friend.”

A small group awaited the airplanes’ arrival, before the show formally kicked off Friday at 2 p.m.

“I decided to come and see the plane, I’m interested in the big one, the Fortress,” said Eric Olsen, 69, an Army veteran who lives in Toms River.

Olsen has been to other air shows – “I like to see the old planes, see what it’s about,” he said.

Tom Caruso and his wife, Lisa, also were there early – Tom, 52, is a history buff; Lisa, 56, whose late father, Steve Roffis, was a World War II flight engineer on a B-29 bomber.

“I have all his awards, medals, scrapbooks,” said Tom Caruso of Manalapan, speaking of the father-in-law who died before he met his wife.

“It’s interesting to me, but he is more the history buff,” Lisa Caruso said.

“I specifically like aviation,” Tom Caruso said.

At about 1:35 p.m., the Mustang suddenly appeared out of the south, turned in flight and landed.

“Isn’t that a pretty thing?” said Marilyn Ehrle, 71, of Manchester. “It gave me goose bumps, to think these men went through so much for us.”

Following the Mustang in was the Liberator and, finally, the Fortress, all on the ground for the 2 p.m. start of the show.

“It brings back a lot of memories, my God,” said George Lilieholm, 88, a Lumberton resident who served as a flight engineer on both a B-17 and B-24.

The Wings of Freedom Tour, according to the Collings Foundation, has two goals, to honor World War II veterans and educate visitors, especially younger people, about American history and heritage.

“The Collings Foundation people are wonderful,” said Monica Chrisanthon, who lives in Media, Pa., noting how it arranges free rides for World War II vets. “There’s so few of them left.”

In the past, Chrisanthon would not let his family treat him to a paid ride on the B-24, this one the last in the world that is fully restored and still flying. At Wings of Freedom, 30-minute rides on the bombers are $425, while P51-C flights are $2,200 for 30 minutes and $3,200 for an hour with time at the controls.

“He wouldn’t let us treat him to a ride,” Monica Chrisanthon said. “He thought it was too much (money).”

As a bombadier, Chrisanthon would have sat in the “right up in the nose,” he said.

“Today, I sat in the flight deck area, right behind the pilots,” he said.

Nick Chrisanthon, who carried his World War II dog tags with him, said, with a big smile, the approximately 45-minute flight was “great.”

Herb Sorkin, 86, who lives in Long Branch and Clifton, flew bombing missions on a B-24 in the European theater during World War II. He was hoping to get a ride compliments of the Collings Foundation later Friday or on Tuesday as Wings of Freedom moves to Bridgeport, Conn.

“A beautiful day,” Sorkin said. “Guys like me, this age, to be able to get around, to see the plane again.”

Sorkin added he enjoyed connecting with other World War II veterans.

“I’m a little overwhelmed,” Tom Caruso said. “They’ve been restored immaculately.”

“You really get a sense of what they went through when you walk inside (the bombers),” Lisa Caruso said.

And Chrisanthon still has that bucket list.

“The next is Greece,” said Monica Chrisanthon, explaining her in-laws would like to travel to Greece, where their parents were from, one more time.

 

-dailyrecord.com