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Sun, Jan 28, 2007

CAF Takes 50th Anniversary Celebration On The Road

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.

FMI: www.commemorativeairforce.org, www.airsho.org/airsho-news/index.html,
www.airpowermuseum.org/info/index.shtml

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