The (Temporary) Break-up From Airventure

By Tom Woodward

One day to go to the end of AirVenture and I start to get that empty feeling in my stomach. I remember a similar feeling when I was 15 and breaking up with my first serious girlfriend. My mother said I was too young to get upset but I'm 57 now. Not one foot in the grave but until Obamacare is de-funded and the death panels go with it, I'm closer to death than my first set of teeth. So why do I feel that way?

"Hi! I'm Tom and I'm an aviation junkie". I live for this stuff. I've been coming to Oshkosh, now called AirVenture, for 34 years and have missed only one year. Like a bad car accident I've put that year out of my mind so I can't tell you why I missed it, i just did.

I'm just a flight or two away from 18,000 hours. My father passed away with 36,000 hours in his logbook and I have an Uncle who stopped logging his time when he went beyond 60,000! I guess the younger generation is getting more lazy. One of the remarkable things about AirVenture is that you may be standing under the wing of a WWII bomber and having a chat with an elderly gentlemen and he might either be 1) a dreamer who always wanted to fly but just appreciates the beauty of the machinery, or 2) 70 years from flying that same airplane over Ploesti. The problem is you might not know which one you're talking with because the pilot is way beyond being boisterous about his remarkable deeds.

Three months ago my father-in-law passed away. He was a fun-loving, playful man until time caught up with him and he spent his last five years in assisted-living. He talked little about his military accomplishments. Like many of the Greatest Generation he was content and appreciative to the end. When you fly 25 missions, based in North Africa in a B-24 as a young man in your early 20, many over the oil fields of Ploesti, you have a lot to brag about, but he never did. We don't fully appreciate what these men and women did for us, but AirVenture is an example of what their fight for freedom won. My wife took a tour of "Diamond Lil", the CAF B-24 sitting majestically on Phillips 66 Plaza. It was one just like her father flew but talked little about. She related the fact that her father had just passed away and after a few words from an understanding docent, she was taken up to the cockpit to sit in the left seat. I was not there but the text message to me conveyed the emotion that overcame her. Perhaps the circle of life was completed and the understanding of his accomplishments became clear. These are the emotions these airplane must convey to all those veterans who see them.

Skillful people have spent thousands upon thousands of hours refurbishing these beautiful military aircraft so they can live out their useful lives, humbly knowing they did a thankless job with dignity and honor just my father in law. RIP Dewey..

FMI: http://www.commemorativeairforce.org/