Meet Me in Las Vegas
The Commemorative Air Force (CAF)
marks 50 years of celebrating patriotism and freedom this year with
three major events scheduled to celebrate this golden
anniversary.
"It's always exciting when you reach 50 years," said Kay Crites,
the CAF's director of public relations," to the Midland
Reporter-Telegram. "We've had 50 years of dedicating ourselves to
freedom, to education and to honoring those who have sacrificed on
our behalf. This year will be a magnification of all those
points."
The Las Vegas celebration with be held July 9-11, with retired
USMC Lt. Col. Oliver North as the event's keynote speaker.
Currently an American conservative political commentator and host
of "War Stories with Oliver North" on Fox News Channel, North is
perhaps best remembered for his involvement with the 1980s
Iran-Contra Affair.
Other guest speakers include former husband-and-wife CIA spies
James and Meredith Olson, former CIA spies.
Bronze Star for Valor recipient Keni Thomas is another guest
speaker at the rally's sessions. The 2001 motion picture "Black
Hawk Down" is based from Thomas' Army company mission in Mogadishu,
Somalia.
The Thunderbirds and the
Red Flag Aggressor Squadron -- an Air Force version of Top Gun --
have also been invited, Crites said.
The CAF is hoping to draw some 3,000 to the rally and has
invited such well-known names as US Supreme Court Chief Justice
John Roberts, entrepreneur Bill Gates, and evangelists Billy,
Franklin and Will Graham.
There are also plans to invite top legislators, top judicial
figures, top political figures and all of the U.S. presidents, she
added.
In addition to the event in Las Vegas, an international
celebration February 19, 2007, marks the 50th day of the 50th year
when 30 CAF units across the US and in France will host an
international celebration of 50 years of patriotism. A third event,
AIRSHO, is scheduled for September 22 and 23, 2007.
The point of this grand endeavor, said Crites, is to make a
statement; perhaps a shot heard around the world that Americans
still feel the US is a wonderful place to live, to work, to raise a
family and to spend a life.
The Commemorative Air Force operates the world's largest fleet
of World War II combat aircraft, numbering over 145. At any given
time, 100 of these historic aircraft are in flyable condition with
the remainder in restoration and maintenance.
The CAF fleet includes many notable and extremely rare aircraft
from both the Allied Forces and the Axis Powers. Among the Allied
aircraft are the only remaining flyable Boeing B-29 Superfortress
bomber and Curtiss SB2C Helldiver carrier-based dive bomber. Rare
Axis aircraft operated by the CAF include an original Japanese
Mitsubishi A6M3 "Zero" carrier-based fighter and a German Ju-52.
These aircraft are all flown regularly in support of the CAF
mission.
An international, patriotic, educational nonprofit organization,
the CAF restores and flies classic military aircraft, in order to
remind all Americans that freedom is not free.
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