I Wanna Fly a Warbird

The story “So You Wanna Fly a Warbird” (August 2018) brought back memories of watching “Witchcraft” and “Nine O Nine” (B-17) taxi by a few years ago when the Collings Foundation tour arrived at Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona. I could feel my heart pounding as if in unison with the rumble of the big radials. I felt the ground move, and my ears were treated to a sound that would be all too familiar to an aging population in England who saw and heard what I was hearing but a thousand-fold over. What really moved me and what I will never forget, however, was the squealing of their brakes as they passed by on their way down the tarmac. I tried to imagine hundreds of B-17s and B-24s with their brakes squealing, inching their way to the runway and their individual destinies.

These planes are living tributes to those that lived, fought, and sadly died in the name of freedom. Thank you, Collings Foundation and all the other [organizations] for keeping their memory alive each time the engines fire up and the [planes] take to the skies. [Those men] truly are the “greatest generation.” You’re preaching to the choir on that one, Joe. We all feel the same way.—BD