Preston’s Pride facelift
Volunteers recently buffed and polished iconic plane
Travelers along Highway 99 in Tulare may notice a certain World War II roadside attraction is shining much brighter in the central Valley sun recently than it has in decades past.
That’s because a group of volunteers from B-17 Archaeology recently donated their effort and a weekend of their time to give the B-17 parked along the highway near Mefford Field a complete makeover, including a three-stage buffing and polishing of its aluminum skins and the application of period-correct flight decals that more accurately depict its unique flight history.
A colorful history
The plane that has become known as “Preston’s Pride” in honor of Tulare World War II hero Maurice “Mo” Preston was built May 17, 1945 — nine days after conclusion of World War II in Europe — and went straight from the assembly line and into storage in Syracuse, NY. In 1946, Preston’s Pride served in Operation Crossroads, an atomic testing project in the Bikini Atoll near the Marshall Islands intended to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.
As a result, it was not originally equipped with the arsenal of turrets it has now, but served instead as a “mothership” from which airmen operated 12 other radio-controlled drone B-17s, maneuvering them in and out of the mushroom cloud to observe how they were affected by the shockwaves from atomic explosions and the subsequent fallout.
Preston’s Pride is the only surviving B-17 from Operation Crossroads.
After stops at Wrightpatterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Eglin AFB in Florida and even Roswell AFB in New Mexico, the plane was withdrawn from use.
When the city of Tulare became interested in a city landmark, they turned to Preston, who grew up in Tulare before flying a B-17 in 45 World War II combat missions, for assistance in obtaining from the Air Force an ongoing loan of the plane that would come to bear his name.
Along with son as copilot, Preston piloted the plane across the country to Tulare, but there was a slight problem; as Preston was recognized as a war hero and still in the Air Force, he was instructed to not land the plane on Mefford Field’s short runway, so the people of Tulare came up with a clever solution.
“A local farmer plowed his field and made a dirt runway,” said Stathos. “It’s not Mefford Field, so he wasn’t breaking an order.” A man with a passion
Greg Stathatos, founder of B-17 Archaeology, said the group is the result of his everincreasing interest in the Boeing-made heavy bomber known as the Flying Fortress.
It all began 24 years ago when Stathatos’ son, then 2, began asking questions about a model B-17 that
The more Stathatos read and researched at the library to find answers for his inquisitive son, the more he became intrigued by the story of the B-17 in American history.
“But it wasn’t just about the plane. It was also about the stories of those 17-year-olds that flew them during World War II, and if I like these stories there must be others that will too,” said Stathatos.
He began interviewing World War II airmen who served on B17s and even began collecting pieces from old aircrafts.
“In my garage I have relics from over 100 B-17 planes that crashed during the war, and I can account for the lives of 875 airmen who perished through those pieces of aluminum,” he said.
In an effort to share the story of the iconic plane, Stathatos began filming them for a documentary series called “Surviving B-17s.”
When he and his camera crew went to film the B-17 known as “Starduster” housed at March Field Air Museum in Riverside last year, his countless hours of research enabled him to pick up on a mistake.
“The plane was the wrong color for its history. We asked the museum if we could adopt the plane and restore it to its original color,” he said.
The museum was reluctant, having been made similar offers by groups in the past only to watch them abandon work because of the complexity of the job.
But Stathatos persuaded them, and after rounding up a group of like-minded enthusiasts to help with the 130 hours of power washing and painting, they completed Starduster’s restoration to its original World War II colors and marking last August.
One successful B-17 restoration down, and Stathatos and his team had found their passion. Next stop: Tulare. Years of neglect and a return to glory
A lot of things have happened to Preston’s Pride since it touched down in Tulare for the last time on Aug. 5, 1958. Unfortunately, most of those things have been bad.
It has been damaged by car collisions several times, had its interior gutted by looters who promised to do some restoration work, and has accumulated a heavy layer of oxidation from decades in the elements.
A big part of the renovation process is removing that oxidation as well as some inaccurate details that have been added to the plane over the years.
Stathatos is a stickler for historical authenticity, and that attention to detail made for some lengthy discussions with the Tulare Amvets when he expressed an interest in working on Preston’s Pride.
They disagreed on the location of the words “Preston’s Pride” near the plane’s nose that were added in 2004, which is where its atomic testing insignia as part of Operation Crossroads would have been located.
“Those stickers used a font made in 2000. That font didn’t exist in 1946,” said Stathatos.
They compromised on placing a smaller Preston’s Pride sticker higher up on the plane’s fuselage and placing the historically accurate logos in their proper locations.
After three days of hard work turned into four on account of rain, the B-17 Archaeology team were able to turn back the hands of time, and the finished product looks as brilliant as it did when it rolled off the assembly line.
Preston’s Pride will never fly again, but people seeing it for the first time after its makeover could understandably believe otherwise.
But for Stathatos, the hard work is about more than polishing up an old jewel; it’s about making sure the past survives into the future.
“I don’t know if we’re actually restoring the plane or preserving history, but it’s not just an atomic survivor and a historic war plane, it’s childhood memories for this community,” said Stathatos. “Since we’ve been working here, over 100 people have stopped by and told us how their dads always used to stop here when they were kids on the way to L.A. or some other memory.”
B-17 Archeology will return to Tulare on May 12 for a Preston’s Pride dedication and ribboncutting ceremony at 10 a.m., and their work is being documented for an upcoming DVD series available for purchase on their website, www.b17archaeology.com.
Their next plane project will be “Virgin’s Delight,” the B-17G in the collection of Castle Air Museum in Atwater.