In celebration of the 60th birthday of the US Air Force, the base opened up and had on display several different airplanes to check out...
Terry was in hog heaven - couldn't wait to get onto the tarmack and check out the planes. He has always said that if it would have been possible for him, he would have been a pilot. Lucky for me, his life went in another direction.
It was a great day and surprisingly way better than the 4th of July thingy that they had. We both said we wished Bev & Fritz had stayed long enough to check this out.
Terry was excited about meeting
Gail Halvorsen. Naturally, I had NO IDEA who this man was and Terry effortlessly filled me in:
During the Berlin airlift days (1948-49) Halvorsen would drop candy attached to parachutes, which he made, to the children in Germany. His action was dubbed Operation Little Vittles and sparked similar efforts by other crews. These pilots were then dubbed, "Candy Bombers." Halvorsen had wanted to help raise the morale of the children during the time of uncertainty. I figured, "that's cool" and after checking out some of the planes, we headed over to stand in line to meet the guy and get a photo and autograph. He is, afterall, a military celebrity.
But Terry got sidetracked, talked to some people he knows and someone told him that Leo Thorsness was also here. Yes, I had NO IDEA who this guy was either. And too bad, as well - this guy is a real life hero! I had to find out once I got home his real story - an amazing one and definitely one everyone should know about. Here's a quick Stacy version (but be sure to read the real deal by clicking his link above) :
During Vietnam, he was sent on a mission to take out some Surface to Air Missles (SAMs) - got into a nasty dogfight - was okay - got into another dogfight - was not okay - was captured and taken as a POW - stayed in the Hanoi Hilton for 6 years - eventually let go - received loads of awards and medal. A real American hero.
WOW!
By this time, Trevor was getting a bit tired, hot and frustrated in his backpack. We took a quick tour of the entertainment stands - got FOUR FREE TICKETS to the Rolling Stones [: < ] concert in Dusseldorf (what's the matter? no one paying the ridiculous amounts of money for these things, so they keep giving them away?) and we headed back home.
Terry is providing the captions on the pictures (as he knows all sorts of stuff about all kinds of planes) and other information I am probably leaving out - maybe I'll have him add his own thoughts of the day later on -- yeah, that's a good idea!
So - until he adds on, here are the cool photos of the planes and people we met!
USAF 60th!
