Herrrooooooo!
Each year around Memorial Day, the skies far above the House of Hank resonate with the deep hum of four engines and in short order a whole lot of history rumbles by. At which point the airspace immediately around the House fills with a lot of Whoopee!-ing and Oh-boy!-ing and other expressions of delight accompanied by jumping up and down and pointing. The B-17s are back!
I’m ready to go! (Don’t mind me.)
This year, the bomber overhead was “The Movie” Memphis Belle, an historic aircraft owned by The Liberty Foundation and used in the filming the movie of the same name. You may recall Hank’s favorite B-17, the Liberty Belle, which not long after its last Seattle visit experienced an in-flight fire, made a “remarkably controlled landing” in a field outside of Chicago, and just burned and burned and burned. Hank spent a lot of time during his recent visit talking to the engineer who was on that fateful flight. He says she will rise again someday!
But! But! B-17.
Hank & Cap hopped in the truck and headed south to the airfield. They had to see this year’s Flying Fortress. Check it out:
Hank could watch this Vimeo clip over and over and over again. In fact, he does. It’s kind of a thing.
Here’s their adventure:
The best part of touring old airplanes…
…the little old men for Hank’s Dog, Horse, & Little Old Man Ranch©!
They’re E V E R Y W H E R E !
We’re going in!
Inside!
The original crew
Probably not the original pilot
Definitely not the original crew
(It was Mother’s Day, after all)
Waiting for the plane
In honor of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy, June 6, 1944 and all those lost.
HJW, RSW, HGW Jr. (13 June 1944), DRK, & LOR – Blessings and thank you. Also “Piper Bill” Millin and Chester Nez. Aloha.
_________________________________
How lovely this world is, really: one simply has to look.
Joyce Carol Oates
Wow, what a wonderful experience, and I share your emotion and nostalgia. These old planes tug at the heart strings. Every time I’ve seen a Memorial flight (Lancaster, Hurricane, Spitfire) it has a deep effect on me. My Dad (sadly no longer with us) was one of those who went up onto the beaches 70 years ago, and luckily survived. He hardly ever spoke of it.
Jo! My apologies for taking so long to respond to your note. We’ve been out of town and doing all sorts of things and have fallen behind on everything. How amazing that your father was at D-Day…it gives me shivers. Those veterans rarely spoke of their experiences, and only obliquely when they did so. This was true of my father and uncles and cousins and is, I suppose, a universal experience. Our close family members were fortunate to make it through the war (mostly) intact, but for three beautiful boys lost at St. Lo, Luzon, and Iwo Jima. How proud you must be of your father and all the brave souls who stood up to tyranny in their time. Blessings on all of them.
Hank that’s OK! 🙂 And you must be so proud too, of your family, both the ones who were lost and the ones who survived. It’s impossible for us to imagine. When you see the footage of the D-Day landings and listen to the descriptions of veterans who were there, it goes straight to your heart. My Dad was such a gentle soul. Yes, lots of blessings to them all, and to you too!
I love those big, thunderous, planes too. Sounds like your summer has been going swimmingly!
Wonderful! You have good taste in airplanes.
It’s lovely to hear from you again and hope your summer is going just as grand!