on tuesday jayson had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; the collings foundation came to utah. they tour the country bringing the old "war birds" to local airports and offer rides on them. it isn't cheap to ride on their planes, but considering this is the only b-24j still flying you can understand the price.
about five years ago, jayson bought his dad a ride on the b-24. scott's been waiting a long time to be able to take this flight, and it turned out that this week would work. we were so excited to watch him fly on this plane, because we knew it would mean a lot to him. as time got closer, we all saw what it would mean to jayson too, so we decided that they should fly together.
from wikipedia:
the b-24 was produced in greater numbers than any other American combat aircraft of World War II and still holds the record as the most produced U.S. military aircraft. It was used by many Allied air forces and every U.S. branch of service during the war, attaining a distinguished war record.
jayson and i have both been fascinated with WWII for a couple months now, so this was really exciting to see this part of history so up close and personal.
here are a couple pictures from the day:
(all these pictures were taken with film, which jayson has fallen in love with (again) since the film is not dead workshop with the crazy talented jon canlas).
i heard the flight was unbelievable. we've been watching band of brothers lately, so jayson really tried to envision what it must have been like for the soldiers to ride on these planes.
we met lots of fantastic people that day--a gentleman whose brother flew a b-24 on d-day and didn't make it home from the war alive. also, a sweet sweet lady and her daughter who flew with jayson. we were talking to them a little bit when they got back, and noticed the lady was pretty emotional and the daughter was holding some old dog tags. as we started to listen to her story, we heard that she met a man before the war and was engaged to him when he left to fight. he flew a b-24 on d-day and survived, and went on to fly 30 something more missions. he made it home safely from the war to marry this lady and they had 7 children together. they lived a happy life for the last 60 or so years, until he passed away last month. this flight meant a lot to her and to her daughter, and it was so wonderful to hear how special this experience was to her.
i'm so grateful to those who sacrificed so much to give us the freedoms we have. this experience was something i don't think jayson or scott will forget any time soon.
see scott's pictures and recap here.
