Memphis Belle WWII aircraft getting closer to public reveal

Very cool. I love seeing those old warbirds.

I got involved with that effort back when She was in pieces at an AFB near Memphis...Very strange story of how it happened...right out of the blue got a call from the curator at the time...His team were mainly volunteer FedEx mechanics...They needed a certain machine to assist them and called me up...I put a machine with vintage design and era heritage into the back of my truck and drove it there myself...12hrs straight..got there in the morning...gave it to them..

I worked with them for several years, trying to get money raised for them and awareness to the importance of this project...Did all sorts of things, trade shows with the MemBelle theme, went and pitched Big donors looking for some patrons, etc...

One guy out of Nashville, (Stacey David) had a TV show called 'Trucks'...I talked to him about it, he drove over there and did an entire show around the Memphis Belle, and then built a very cool old Truck called 'Sgt. Rock'..same color and detail and everything as the Belle!...with twin 50cal Browning replicas mounted in the bed of it even...I bet you can watch that episode out there on youtube or someplace..pretty awesome....

I have parts and pieces and photos of Her around here left over...little rivets that were swept into a pile to be discarded during the rebuild, etc... I saved them from the trash can, bagged them up, and would present them to people that wanted to donate/help, or Veterans that would appreciate a genuine part of a famous American Warbird...To me, those little scraps represented hallowed drops of blood, an unbelievable mfg effort, countless tears.
As reverent as buttons off of Geo Washington's coat....

It was a very moving experience to many..I lost touch when She was moved to Wright Pat....I would like to see and visit Her again someday...

My Wifes Dad was a waist gunner in a B-17...some kind of unimaginable stories he had...give you chills...

Cool story Mudpuppy , I thank you for your contribution to this effort. I believe anything we can do to preserve and memorialize anything to do with WW11 should be done and taught to our younger generations. To show what American pride and coming together as one can do for the world. I feel that era was the last time this country , and maybe other countries as well , will come together they way they did for the common good of other people. I miss just living in the aftermath of what that generation tried to instill in the generations to come after them. I feel their efforts have fallen on deaf ears , and we are paying the price for that now.
Thanks again for your contributions to this effort , I can only imagine what it must feel like just to be standing beside that plane with the history that it carries with it. I'm with you as well , I'd have been picking up rivets , nuts and bolts , whatever , and put in a display case.

Theres a very cool historic archive down in Montgomery Al at an AFB...I called and scheduled a visit to take my Wife so she could attempt to find some information about her Dad's plane and the missions he was on...I explained my request, and when we showed up, we were treated like royalty...That made her feel good, on account of her dad never made a big deal about his service......so we settled down into a big library full of files and got to work...

Her Father never talked about his experiences at all, except on one night, late, after drinking all day, 4th of July I remember, after everyone had gone to bed and the fireworks were finished...I was helping him with the clean up...He had a 'flashback' that went on for hours until the predawn Sun-up and I happened to be there to listen...sitting there in the garage....

Imagine the times of the era?...Insert yourself into the 40's.....One day being an Ohio farm kid, the next being in a bomber squadron, 30,000 ft over hostile territory, in sub 50 degree temps, firing those Browning twins out the side of a damned old 17? He got that role on account of his small but sturdy stature, the fuselage is not that big in a 17, about none of us could fit into the ball turret now a days, unless you weigh maybe 120lbs...Hell..half the fat kids now a days couldnt fit into the bomb Bay!...

Scared to death! Guns would jam, he would have to tuck his right hand mitten up under his arm and clear the jam barehanded..had a frostbit hand until the day he died...Theres nothing to these planes! Unbelievable! Damn wings are nothing but a simple structure and a painted fabric skin!!. The Mfg effort that turned furniture makers into bomber builders overnight?...Rolling out these magnificent rigs, staffed with farm kids that have never been in the air before, let alone traveled out of their own county?? All of a sudden, up in the air behind a set of Big radial engines thumping?

Be like pulling kids off the street nowadays to pilot the Space Shuttle, except with heavy flak, and messerschmidts..?

Last mission run, only himself and two others out of the 10 man crew landed back in England alive...limping back, all shot to hell...He pulled the helmet off of his good buddy who was the tail gunner...guy was dead, heat lines shot through...frozen stiff....My Wifes Old Man....young fellow at the time..said he grabbed his friend, pulled off his flight helmet, and his ears and scalp were frozen inside of it...No wonder a guy dont talk about things, not to their kids anyway...

He carried a pair of Good Luck Charms...those big Copper English Pennies?...they were both rubbed smooth by his thumbs, like a rosary of sorts?...He gave one to my Wife and the other to Her Brother...Her brother lost his somewhere along the years, She still has hers though, a simple smooth worn disc of copper..One of her most treasured momentos, probably THE most treasured truth be told...Imagine what kind of stress it would take to rub a coin smooth with your fingers?

Those WWII archives are really something to go and sift through..amazing write ups about events and unknown forgotten people, gives a guy a perspective of the magnitude of the effort...looking at rows upon rows of mirofiche files...some of the 'squadron historians' were beautiful poetic writers of the missions, some were not, they just kept it clean and simple...but the ones that were creative, just amazing gift of detailed writing! ....I aint never read or seen anything like it since, and its all buried in those archives to go and take a read.......

I can't wait till May when she goes public.....Wright Patterson is a couple hours from me and I plan on going! Been following her progress on Facebook.
Mud......amazing stories man....I would love to hear more!

I did some work for an old fellow that flew his 25 missions and made it home. Saw his paperwork for his flight missions. 2 trips over Japan. My helper pulled into his driveway one morning driving a little Mitsubishi car. The old man just stared , kind of mesmerized , looking at that car , then , he said , we flew over Japan twice to bomb that plant and could never get close enough to it because of the cloud cover and the amount of anti aircraft fire and flak they were receiving. When he said it , I don't even think he knew he said it , I think he may have thought he just thought it in his mind.
Did some work for another guy , Army infantry , 6th grade education , combat field promoted officer of his unit in some mountains somewhere battling the Germans. We sat and had lunch one day , and he just started telling a few stories , said he didn't really know why he was telling me , he never really told anyone about them. Amazing stories. These stories are fading fast, and will be lost forever, except for the ones in those archives , and very few will have the desire to read them , and they'll be lost and forgotten forever.

Oh Man Hawg! Great story! Same thing here...After the War, several years later, My Wifes Father got a job selling cars....Guess what? The dealership he worked for brought in a load of Volkswagens! Heres a pic of Her Penny, I told her what we are talking about this morning and she pulled it right out of her purse! She carries it with her daily...Near as I can tell, its an 1875 Queen Vic...I asked her about the details of what happened to the one Her Brother had....She told me the Story of its loss....

Her Brother was in an ice cream parlor in Washington DC after he got back from Jungle Conflict, had his Dads Lucky penny with him the whole time......he pulled out his wallet to pay, and his Lucky Penny fell out, hit the floor, skipped a few times, and to his horror, he watched it as it rolled underneath a big freezer! At the time, as you can understand and attest to, the Public's attitude towards Service Members and his memories in general were not a positive experience....not enough to move a big freezer anyway...

He also had some tough duty he rarely talks about, knowing him for 40yrs he sometimes does though...He lived outside in a teepee for a couple of years after he got home...until he met his wife, then he straightened up...Damn!

I wonder what happened to that penny? Somebody surely found it, a Maintenance Man, a mover, a janitor? No doubt they looked it over, and wondered like we do.."Where did this coin come from? If only it could talk?"....Well, if it could, that damn penny would say, "For the last half of my Life, I was in a B-17 over Germany, and then in some Asian Jungle, before taking cover underneath this Freezer to get some rest."

Well, a guy is indeed honored to get to hear the stories...I met an old guy up here who served on the Flier submarine when it hit a mine...its a hell of a story too...late at night and he was up on watch...only himself and 6 other crewmen got off...The only reason he survived was he was up on deck, and also that he was a good swimmer, comfortable in the water...Grace of God...