WWII Veteran Returns to Normandy for D-Day! It's not what you think!

[Bullseye 2620]

When I served with the 101st at Ft. Campbell in the early 1960s I frequently flew out of a small commercial airport near the post on "Ozark Airlines" which was still flying the DC3. I remember that walking from the back to the front of the plane before take-off was a very steep climb. Little old ladies actually got on with their chickens in small cages!

When I was a kid in the '50s in the Midwest we often flew Ozark DC-3s from where we lived in Illinois to visit family in Des Moines, Iowa. I can remember one flight through a thunderstorm that was really fun. In those pre-TSA days, the pilot would let kids like me up into the cabin to sit in his lap and put our hands on the joystick. I asked the pilot if he ever worried about crashes. "Not in this Gooney Bird, I don't," he said. "The stall speed is so low that it just won't happen, and if I have to I can set this plane down on Route 6."

Someplace in the back of a drawer I think I still have the pilot's wings they gave me as we deplaned at the end of that flight. Those were the days, folks.

 

[steveno]

fly in at Duxford

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AZ1wvK7mYM[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDSlDJsUZVw[/ame]

 

[Lt JL]

Some retired Feds and local deputies used to talk about the two or three found crash-landed on Mesas in Colo. Seems they smelled funny.

 

[Watchdog]

fly in at Duxford

I was thinking of posting some photos and videos of that, but I initially thought I might be getting into overkill on this subject, might be making too big a thing of it.

I realize now that we should make a Big Thing out of this, the 75th Anniversary of the greatest military undertaking the world has ever seen.

D-Day is a premier example of The Whole Being Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts. Much greater. The world had never seen anything even remotely like it, and probably never will again. Every G.I., every Jeep, every gun were cogs in a massive logistical wheel that once it began to turn, it picked up speed and rolled over Nazi resistance until it completely flattened it into the ground.

We'll see our flag flying freely tomorrow. Each of us should stop what we're doing for a moment and salute it.

I got off track.

Just look at them...all those beautiful planes!

To forum member Steveno: Thanks for posting the videos.

 

[soFlaNative]

Used for mosquito control down here at least thru the 80's

It seems Lee County to the west of me still has a DC-3 in service.
https://www.lcmcd.com/aircraft/

 

[rwsmith]

To me the difference.....

I love planes, period. But to me the difference between an airplane and a jet is that that airplane uses the air to fly while the jet plane considers the air to be an obstacle.

 

[Old TexMex]

My first flight was Trans Texas Airways DC-3. Corpus to Beaumont.
Here's a more recent flight someone made in Colombia
[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=94LQ9sodLwY[/ame]

 

[steveno]

watching a parade

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KYw6xOvRzo[/ame]

 

[Sistema1927]

Did y'all see where a 99 year old 101st Airborne D-Day veteran did a tandem jump from a Dakota for the 75th Anniversary. Nobody was shooting at him this time but that doesn't mean that he is any less brave than he was then.

 

[shouldazagged]

watching a parade

YouTube

Man, the sound of those radial engines is music to my old ears, and seeing those beautiful old birds take off lifts my heart.

 

[shouldazagged]

My first flight was Trans Texas Airways DC-3. Corpus to Beaumont.
Here's a more recent flight someone made in Colombia
YouTube

Not the best runway I've seen. Or the worst. But you damn sure wouldn't want to crash on that flight.

 

[Watchdog]

One thing I really, really like about this story?

A good looking lady wearing work boots (maybe even cowboy boots!), jeans that fit good, and a scarf on her head, working on a vintage airplane! Shades of Rosie the Riveter!

Wish I'd been the one who made the photograph.
Here's to her.