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As my flying partner Jere Stauffer and I stood ready to board the B-25 World War II bomber “Tondelayo” in Hazleton, Friday afternoon, crew member and longtime pilot Bob Oehl took some time to prepare us.


I explained to him that I had already flown in the B-17 “Flying Fortress” and the B-24 “Liberator” in prior years while reporting on Lancaster Airport’s “Community Days” — a biennial event that kicked off Saturday and continues from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.


Oehl is the nephew of the late U.S. Air Force Gen. Jimmy Doolittle. Doolittle was a lieutenant colonel in 1942 (in what was then the Army Air Forces) and who led a stunning raid on Japan with a fleet of 16 B-25s.


The twin-engine planes are referred to as “medium” bombers “that packed an extra-large punch.” The airplane was used in all World War II theaters, but quite frequently to bomb Japanese airfields from low levels. No wonder it is Oehl’s favorite, given his connection with Doolittle, whose morale-boosting raid made the aircraft famous.


“You haven’t flown yet; those (other) airplanes are for old people,’’ teased Oehl, a volunteer for the Massachusetts-based Collings Foundation. The non-profit organization educates the public about the nation’s military history by providing plane rides, demonstrations and exhibits at air shows around the country.


Feeling the ride


Upon hearing his words, my belly fluttered with a mixture of anticipation and fear. He was telling me I was really going to “feel” this ride.


I walked around on the macadam at Hazleton Municipal Airport wondering to myself, how much more exciting could it be after flying in the B-17 and B-24. In those planes, I recalled looking down through cracks in the plane to see the earth thousands of feet below; looking out the open windows in the depressurized cabins where gunners once poised (targets themselves) to shoot at the enemy.


Cloudy skies gave way to sunshine, promising a spectacular view on our way to Lancaster.


I tried to think of how it must have felt to be those pilots, gunners and other crew members who had manned these planes.


As hard as I tried, I simply couldn’t fathom the courage it took for them to climb the ladders into the cramped, uncomfortable aircraft as I did (er ... with the help of both Oehl and Stauffer, who managed to get me in my seat right behind the two pilots).


I thought: “How could they do it thinking about what potential hell they were about to face; being fired at, quite likely hit and very possibly spiraling to their deaths from the sky?


“What were they thinking about? Their families, their loves, their friends, their hopes and dreams for life after war?”


That’s the point of Community Days, and its theme “Freedom is not Free: A Salute to U.S. Armed Forces and Veterans,” explained Dave Eberly, the airport’s manager, who orchestrated a bus trip for 15 community leaders and journalists to Hazleton, where we each selected our plane for a 40-minute ride.


In a time when there is so much coverage and controversy over the war in Iraq, Community Days should serve as a time to think about the many people “in our history, who have died for our freedom,” Eberly said. Those serving in Iraq deserve our tribute no matter our views on the war, Eberly said.


“I don’t want our people to be at war, but I feel for the people who are there,” he said.


He said there are 1,500 World War II veterans dying every day and it is critical to continue to capture as many of their stories and experiences as possible.


The Collings Foundation has owned its B-25 since 1984. It’s one of 18 B-25s still flying and is the only one that is used to offer public rides. It was repainted to commemorate the original “Tondelayo,” an aircraft of the 345th Bomb Group, 500th Bomb Squadron, which contributed to more than 10,000 sorties in the South Pacific and whose crew received the Silver Star for bravery, according to the foundation’s Web site.


The name “Tondelayo” comes from the sultry character played by Heddy Lamar in the movie “White Cargo.”


After the war, the aircraft was used for reconnaissance and later to train pilots. The last duty B-25s were retired in 1959, according to the Web site.


What they endured


I had a conversation with Stauffer on the way to Hazleton about what the men must have endured.


“That’s a mind-set we are not familiar with today,’’ said Stauffer, who is director of training and the garden division at Stauffers of Kissel Hill.


As Stauffer and I strapped ourselves in (he had to help me with that too), pilot John Garlinger and co-pilot and trainee Jim Harley began preparing for our flight. They instructed us to not only use ear plugs that Eberly supplied to us, but additional ear muffs. They said it was going to get loud, and, did it ever get loud as they revved up the engines.


It was deafening.


None of us were able to hear one another so we could only use hand signals.


Taking off was a thrill.


When we were well off the ground, Garlinger turned around and gave us the thumbs up, meaning we could get out of our seats. Stauffer immediately crawled into the glass nose through a small tunnel.


I followed Garlinger’s instruction to move closer up into the cockpit. I knelt behind the two pilots looking at some incredible sights as we banked over mountains. We got down to about 500 feet above the earth and I could see the forest floor.


I thought how beautiful everything looks from the air, how intact, how orderly. Patchworks of farmland. Tidy neighborhoods. How much we have.


And I thought, we have the men who flew these bombers, many who gave their lives, to thank for that.





Contact Patricia Poist at ppoist@lnpnews.com. blog comments powered by Disqus