The GMC CCKW

A true American Hero, celebrated his 83rd birthday Monday, he is still flying warbirds and contributing to aviation. I sent him birthday wishes.
Joel

Chuck has been a long time member and supporter of the CAF. The last time I saw him though was at the big Gathering of Eagles air show in Reno, Nev. He is a real character. There were no shortages of aviation notables at that show. I flew with the Tora group. The fun part was the flight out there. You can imagine the constirnation we would cause when we would land at an airport to refuel with 14 Japanese marked airplanes. it was a lot of fun. Chuck did not fly in that show but hung around a P51 named Gunfighter II that belongs to the CAF and autographed pictures.

It is even more ironic to see jet fighters with German Insignia that is for real land ,at old Dow Field here in Bangor, where so many B-17s and B-24s staged out of on the way to send their ancestors into oblivion. Now the enemy is "freind" and off to be trained in ways of the great USAF.
Chuck Yeager signed autographs here also, and even passed out tokens of his appreciation to those who hosted him.

I shot a short video of Chuck and Joe Engle, space shuttle commander who was flying the CAF's P-40 at that time. They both stood next to the P-40 and the P-39 at Reno. Later on in the day Joe ( a brig. general in the Air Force) and a trained fighter pilot flew a no script dog fight with an original A6M2 Zero that had been restored by the CAF. Sid Snedaker, a retired Marine colonel and fighter pilot flew the Zeke. It was great to see two fighter pilots in original WWII aircraft that were enemies, trying to get on the other ones tail during the dog fight. Sid ended up with the victory when Joe couldn't shake him, but the Zero was a lot faster than the P-40.
It was the first time we had the opportunity to witness a dog fight between an original Japanese Zero and a Curtis P-40. The Tora airplanes are all converted T-6's that were made up for the movie Tora Tora Tora.
Thanks for mentioning Chuck, Joel, I dug out the video to show to my students today, along with the dog fight. The kids love seeing their teacher in vodeos. I failed to mention I got another pilot to film me with Chuck and Joe.

Thanks for mentioning photos, Jim, I had forgotten about the photo of General Yeager in my MB, it became a cover photo in one those MV publications. I believe he logged better than two hours in it. I was flattered beyond discription. The Air Guard always gives me good billing in their Air Shows. My fleet parallels theirs from 47 thru the 60s.

Cool Joel, photos and memories are sometimes all us old geezers have. We are lucky that we were adults and attuned to WWII history and sought out these people. The are fast disappearing now and that is sad. I keep expecting the call from Mazie Hill that Tex has passed on. He is 88 years old now and that time is coming.
It is good that we can share those memories with the young guys that post here and read our posts. Keep up the good work.
It is fun taking these old warriors for rides in WWIi vehicles and you are lucky to have such a famous person as Chuck Yeager. I have had a few notable aviation types ride in my 43 GPW , when I had it, but I believe the most fun I ever had in a parade was a young man that I was doing homebound teaching to that was terminally ill with cancer. His father was a command sergeant major here at Fort Sam Houston and one of Damions wishes was to ride in a parade. He wore a WWII steel pot and a pancho on the rainy day in New Braunfels for the October Fest parade. He was thrilled to have his wish granted. He died five days after he had graduated from Cole H.S. in May that year. I had never known anyone with more courage than that young man.

Hill, I am glad you mentioned the name, as there are some who have famous last names but are not military, but still rise to the occasion when their country calls.We have such a person in Professor Richard Hill from Orono Maine, and it is likely that without him, the B-29 may have not been thae success it was, and the outcome of WWII may have been a bit different. In WWII, young Richard Hill was a young Mechanical Engineer employed by General Electric hard at work on a priority supersecret project developing the Turbo Supercharger used on the R-3350 engines of the B-29 and its backup, the B-32. Had it not been for unsung heroes such as Professor Hill, the B-29 may have not been able to fufill its mission in time to prevent a real slaughter. Thank you Professor Hill. Professor Hill is the consummate speaker and a co-host of the local weekend talk show "Hot and Cold", which discusses energy saving methods of heating ones home. Professor Hill is 88 Years old, and fit as a fiddle.
Joel

Now that is a cool story.

Professor Hill is a great motivator, he is known the world over, and there are many great engineering graduates in this world who may not have been were it not for Professor Hill. He is remembered for his eloquent speaking voice and non use of microphones. I was hoping that he would someday accept being the Gesst Lecturer at NASM in DC and talk about the B-29 program. It is their loss if they do not invite him.

There are a lot of the unsung hero's out there that made contributions to the total war effort during that great time of stife and national survival. Our total committment to the war pressed many into the effort that history forgot after the great conflict.
In this meager post, I salute all that did their part. Remember, each and every one of these old trucks we love were put together by hard working Americans who loveling knew what the trucks ment to the aim of defeating the Imperial designs of Japan and Germany during WWII.

I met the General at the Paris Air show in the mid 80's... nice as can be.

Loved his book... Movie was a little long.