Reiss Dairy

Flying in Dad’s B17 Bomber Dear Will, Kayla, Ava, and Blake, November 6, 2017 Next Saturday is Veterans Day. That’s when we honor those men and women who served in the US military during times of both war and peace. That date marks the anniversary of the end of World War I. Major hostilities were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. I want to dedicate the story which follows to my father and to all of our family members who served in various branches of our military. In early June your dad/uncle Adam called to say that the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) was bringing their vintage B17 Flying Fortress to Springfield in late June for flights by the paying public. He asked if I would like such a flight and that he and Heather would then buy a ticket. I quickly said “of course” and mentioned that this could be their combination birthday and Father’s Day gift for me. Little did I know the ticket was almost $500 and that it included a one-year membership in the EAA. I also learned later that the EAA was founded in 1953 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and has 200,000 members in 1,000 chapters worldwide. Here’s the EAA flier. They call their program “Aluminum Overcast”. “Overcast” is a weather term like the sky is overcast with clouds. The “Aluminum” part comes from World War II when 600 to 1,000 B17 bombers would be in formation over Germany dropping their 8-ton payloads of bombs. So the sky was overcast with aluminum airplanes instead of clouds, hence their name. Here’s their plane. Flights last about 45 minutes and make a wide circle at 4,000 feet around Springfield. They can take up to 11 guests at a time. There are two EAA pilots who volunteer two weeks of their time plus a crew chief who tells the guests what to do and when to move around the airplane when it’s flying. Guests can pretend they’re operating machine guns from top and bottom bubbles, two side bubbles, a tail bubble, and a nose bubble in front of and below the pilots. Below are the front and back sides of my ticket. Here’s an enlargement of the specifications from the back side of my ticket. Notice the B17 was designed by Boeing in Seattle and that this particular plane was built by Vega Lockheed which was located in Van Nuys, California. It was delivered to the Army Air Corps on May 18, 1945. When I saw that date, I got goosebumps on top of goosebumps because I knew my dad had worked for Lockheed in Van Nuys about that time. I had written an earlier story to you four about the three California jobs my dad had after returning home from World War II. I called Adam and asked him to find that story from about 2015 and check the dates. He called back a few minutes later and said it was written on 9/23/2013 and that it contained my dad’s Lockheed paycheck stubs showing he worked in Van Nuys from April 30 to May 25, 1945. He worked only 15 hours per week and was paid $.85 per hour so he made a total of $51.00 in a month. I was extremely excited and somewhat emotional knowing I was about to fly in a B17 Flying Fortress Bomber that my dad had helped build. I told Adam there was one seat left on my flight and that I would like to buy him a ticket so we could enjoy this hour together. He politely declined saying he wanted me to enjoy these moments reconnecting with my dad in this radical new adventure. Nevertheless, reciprocating for his thoughtfulness is now major on my bucket list.