World War II US Marines Pilot -- a Worthwhile Remembrance

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

Not by me but in a literary magazine that I edit here in Baltimore, Loch Raven Review. A fine essay by local writer Caryn Coyle about her father, a World War II dive bomber pilot now elderly and in failing health:

"Airplanes" by Caryn Coyle

Chris

[pablo42]

Nice one Chris. She tells a good story.

[Bernie]

Reminds me of an incident back in the 90's. I was locking my car in downtown Kissimmee Fl. My car had the vanity plate 'SCOUSE". An older Gent stopped and we got talking, he was from Liverpool but living in Ellesmere Port. He told me he had to do some flying hours every year to keep his pilots license current. This year he decided to give himself a treat and do it at Kissimmee Warbirds Museum. They fly WW2 planes which are mostly trainer but they do have a Mustang trainer, that is what he wanted to fly. He had been a Spitfire pilot in WW2 and told them that at the flying school atatched to the museum, they said he could go up but had to be accompanied by an instructor, he said when he told the instructor his story, he laughed his head off, he was only 25 years old.

[GNASHER]

Went to Duxford,its an old USAF base, a few years ago and saw the roll of honour for the flight crews.I was shocked to see the age of some of them.To see how many lost their lives just from that base was so sad.Heroes the lot of them.

[az_gila]

Went to Duxford,its an old USAF base, a few years ago and saw the roll of honour for the flight crews.I was shocked to see the age of some of them.To see how many lost their lives just from that base was so sad.Heroes the lot of them.

...worth a visit - but it was mostly a RAF base with only the US Army Air Force using it as a fighter base in 1943 and 1944.

Duxford is a now a part of the Imperial War Museum, and the American Air Museum is located on the same property. This is the USAF museum -



...and is where you saw the memorial to the US 8th Air Force crews lost.

I enjoyed the tour around the Imperial War Museum restoration facility, which had many Spitfires in various phases of rebuild.

[ChrisGeorge]

Thanks for your posts, gang. It is important not to forget the heroism of these young men who put their lives on the line, with many of them being lost in action.

Chris

[pablo42]

Sadly they still are Chris. I'm always amazed at the names. They are always the same.

Each one a dream lost...

[dazza]

Great article Chris, thanks!

I can also highly recommend a visit to Duxford Air Museum, posted earlier. Some of the planes are taken out on a daily basis. There's an old passenger plane with corregated sides [almost like an early 2CV car] that you can pay to go up in for a few loops around the air field.

[ChrisGeorge]

Great article Chris, thanks!

I can also highly recommend a visit to Duxford Air Museum, posted earlier. Some of the planes are taken out on a daily basis. There's an old passenger plane with corregated sides [almost like an early 2CV car] that you can pay to go up in for a few loops around the air field.

Thanks, Dazza. It was a pleasure some years ago to go to the same Smithsonian Air and Space Museum described in Caryn's essay, just a few streets from me as I write, with my mother's cousin, Kenneth W. Matchett and his wife. He was trained as an RAF fighter pilot in Texas and was able to see the World War II craft he knew.

C

[pablo42]

Thanks, Dazza. It was a pleasure some years ago to the same Smithsonian Air and Space Museum described in Caryn's essay, just a few streets from me as I write, with my mother's cousin, Kenneth W. Matchett and his wife. He was trained as an RAF fighter pilot in Texas and was able to see the World War II craft he knew.

C

There's lots of them old birds flying all over Africa and South America. Been up in more than a few. Scary and noisey they are...