2005 Southwest Tour Summary
The B-17 & B-24 officially entered the West Coast portion of the Wings of Freedom Tour on April 18th, marking the completion of the Southwest portion of the tour. The bombers visited Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada this year and saw a tremendous response at all visits!
The first visit of the season was Dunnellon, FL for a weekend visit sponsored by the Yankee Air Force Florida Division. Both the B-17 & B-25 visited along with the newly repainted B-24 Liberator "Witchcraft" at her first public appearance ever!
The crowds were great at this airfield, which happens to be an original Army Air Force training field in Central Florida. Organizers Carolyn & Claude Mills did an outstanding job yet again and we look forward to returning again next year! Here is a shot of the B-24 departing for her first ride of the season.
Take a look at all those names on the side of the plane... they are the folks who have contributed over the years to keep the B-24 flying. It is no small task applying these names and we are thankful to Dr. Paul "Maddog" Vasconi for his patience and hard work (with some help). Here is a shot of him hard at work.
The bombers departed Dunnellon for Tallahassee, FL for the first stop of two that were sponsored by Mr. Marty Steiner of Moultrie, GA. Marty has been an organizer for several years with the Collings Foundation and has shown his committment to the tour by sponsoring visits that are at times up to 1000 miles away from his home. His stops in Tallahassee, FL and Americus, GA were the choices this year and both were great! The visit to Americus was the first ever for us and it was especially nice to visit this airport which was where famed aviator Charles Lindbergh learned how to fly. Thanks also to South Georgia Tech for hosting us on their A&P Mechanic school ramp and the donation of parts!
Off to Birmingham, AL next for a visit to Shelby County Airport for the weekend. Stop organizer Hank Stickley did a great job getting the word out and the visit saw great crowds despite the Easter weekend! Unfortunately at the end of the visit, the B-24 developed some engine problems and the decision was made to change the #1 engine at Birmingham. The B-17 flew on to Hot Springs, AR next without the B-24 along side.
The B-24 crew worked hard and changed the engine in record time, missing only Hot Springs, AR and Ada, OK. The B-17 acting solo in both locations saw a great response from Hot Springs which we had not visited for several years and Ada which was the first visit ever to that city. Stop organizers George Downie in Hot Springs and Terry Lee in Ada did a wonderful job and we enjoyed the company of many folks excited to get a peek at the B-17 Flying Fortress.
A weekend visit in Houston, TX saw the reunion of the barnstorming bombers for a stop sponsored and hosted by our Collings Foundation West group at Ellington Field. Led by volunteer organizer Don Daniels and staffed by nearly all of the volunteer "troops" at CF West, the Wings of Freedom Tour had one of the best visits ever to the area. On display with the bombers were other Collings Foundation aircraft such as the UH-1 Huey, T-33 Shooting Star, S2F Tracker, and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom which had had its first flight of the year only days before!
The Houston visit was a great success also because of the participation of the local community. Boy Scouts, Veterans Groups, Schools, and EAA Young Eagles participated all weekend long and it was great to see see the generations communicating with each other... the WWII generation sharing their stories with the young folks who will carry the torch into the future and keep their memories alive.
On Monday morning we moved to Dallas, TX for the first ever visit to Dallas Love Field and the new Frontiers of Flight Museum. Organizer Gil Geddes and Dan Hamilton along with scores of museum volunteers accomplished a record breaking visit to the area and we look forward to visiting the area again in the future! Thanks also to the kind folks at the airport for housing the B-17 & B-24 in the former Braniff Airline hangars during an evening of threatening weather!
On Wednesday afternoon we made a loooong flight to the War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, NM for a visit organized by director Terry Sunday. If you have never been to this museum, we highly recommend it as it is one of the most surprising collections of warbirds in the US. Not many museums can boast a P-38 Lightning, several P-51 Mustangs, a P-40 Warhawk, and an F4U Corsair in their collection as well as many other planes. It was also great seeing so many veterans from the local area coming out to visit as well... like this group of China-Burma-India theater veterans that came out.
On to Tucson, AZ for the weekend as guests of local organizer and DFC member Roger Stubbs. Tucson is the home of Davis Monthan Air Force Base where many military aircraft live their final days before being scrapped, but this weekend was different as the duo of bombers that were saved from the scrappers torch soared above the city. We had a great weekend and saw many veterans and friends including former stop organizer Vince LaRussa who was one of the folks we listened to when we decided to repaint the B-24 as "Witchcraft". He flew in the same bomb group! The bombers also enjoyed a much needed wash down courtesy of the folks at the Tucson International Airport fire department!
The bombers departed for Phoenix, AZ for a visit to Mesa, AZ at Falcon Field arranged by friend and stop organizer Robert Kropp. It had been 2 years since we had visited the airport and it was great seeing everyones response to the new paint scheme of the B-24. If you are ever at Falcon Field, make sure to dine at Anzio Landing restaurant... they have a huge mural of our B-24 on the wall there!
Nearing the end of the Southwest tour we headed for Lake Havasu City, AZ for our first visit ever there! Hosted by Vicki Holt and D2Aero, we had a great time and a great crowd! The crew even felt a little like a bomber crew in 1944 as they stayed at a hotel overlooking the London Bridge that was moved to Lake Havasu in 1962 from London. Here is a shot of the B-17 taking off and the B-24 on the ramp at Lake Havasu.
The final visit of the 2005 Southwest tour was to Las Vegas, NV at North Las Vegas Airport. Luck was on our side for the weekend and we had huge crowds and lots of flights over the city that never sleeps! Second year tour organizer Cindy Campbell worked really hard this year to get the local media to pick up the story and it worked great! Las Vegas has one of the fastest growing veteran populations in the US, so it was great seeing so many of our heroes join us at the visit!
The B-17 & B-24 then moved to Palm Springs, CA to begin the West Coast tour. Stay tuned for more information as it is posted! Thanks for reading!