Now heres a Ford!!!

[_RaT_]

Hopefully the picture I have attached comes through or you will have no clue what I'm talking about. During WWII, Ford turned its Willow Run plant into a B-24 Bomber plant. On Tuesday (6/13/00) I flew in this old B-24J bomber my dad piloted over Romania and Germany during the war. The lake is Lake Shasta in Northern California. Rat...

 

[Hawgee]

Were you using barbless bullets on the fishing trip or just DuPont Spinners?
That is a great sight out the plane. Doesn't look like you needed a flight jacket for cold temps at that altitude.

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

[_RaT_]

Hawgee, never really thought about the barbless hooks, just figured a couple of 500lb bombs dropped out the bombbays would make that a moot point. No jackets needed here, just a tshirt. Glad the picture came through, Rat...

 

[JimBinMI]

Rat,

Cool pic! Did you mean last week Tuesday, 6/6/00?
Or...is it that bright out at 12:02 a.m. and did you have a laptop and send the message from the aircraft! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!

 

[_RaT_]

Jim, I took the picture last week on Tuesday around 1:00 PM. There were actually some really great shots of the lake and dam but no plane except for the clear glass of the nose gunner. I used a regular 35mm camera and scanned it. Willow Run was a Ford auto production faclity they converted to make these bombers. This is the only flying B24 bomber flying even after making over 18000 of them. It was a most sentimental flight, I only wish my dad were alive to have flown with me. Rat...

 

[JimBinMI]

Rat,

Really nice photo, came out great!

JimBinMI

We boys and our toys!

 

[gordon]

Great picture!!! How did you manage to get the ride?
Gordon

 

[_RaT_]

I was fortunate enough to be invited and treated by a great friend. Rat...

 

[paccorti]

Rat,

Great picture. I can understand the sentimental value of that trip for you. My father just turned 80. Served in the Army in the Pacific in WWII and then Korea (and eventually Vietnam). By the time he was my age (35) he had been in two major conflicts (mostly combat engineer stuff). I can't even imagine what it was like... The men of that generation are tops in my book! The other day he and my 3 year old son went to go test drive tractors (a TC35D). He said it was the most fun he's had in a while. He's the only man I've ever looked up to.

Peter

 

[_RaT_]

Peter, thank God for that generation, and thanks to folks like your father. My dad was my hero, I miss the heck out of him, he would be 83 and much like your dad, enjoying simple things like trying out a tractor, you are right, they are tops, I realize that more everyday. Rat...