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Classic Wings Magazine WWII Naval Aviation Research Pacific Luftwaffe Resource Center
When Hollywood Ruled The Skies - Volumes 1 through 4 by Bruce Oriss


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 8:06 am 
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This was sent to me yesterday with the permission to share.
Zack




Dear Friends of Robin Olds, Sunday, May 10, 2009

This is being sent to everyone on my Air Force/Aviation email list. If you don’t want to be included on this list for future announcements, please do NOT be shy about asking me to remove your name. At the same time, please forward this through your own lists, if you choose. This will inevitably result in several people receiving duplicate emails. Sorry about that; ‘tis the way of our wonderful AF connections around the world.

It has taken me a while to know how to compose this news, but it’s important to let everyone know what’s going on with my dad’s estate, which has been in probate since he passed away on June 14th, 2007.

Despite how this may surprise many of you, Robin Olds did not own a house or have any savings when he died. In fact, he was deeply, deeply in debt – most of it to the IRS. My sister and I learned at a very early age to stay far away from his desk during tax season as the growling and colorful words emanating from his den had us getting our homework done on time and being more well-behaved than usual. Despite the frustration and struggle, Robin always filed his own taxes. In his last decade, this task became daunting as the tax laws changed and he had to file expense reports for the speech trips he was making. I encouraged him to turn everything over to a CPA or H&R Block, but the challenge of getting it done was too much fun for him to ignore. In his last four years, he ignored filing tax returns completely. The IRS got the message – and how!

It has taken me over a year and a half to unscramble everything. In addition to the IRS, my dad filled all his many credit cards with the trips he was taking 3-4 times a month around the country and spots around the world to AF reunions, dining-ins, give speeches at museums, go to air shows, address graduates at NATO, etc., and just plain be around his “guys”. He would go anywhere he was invited, just to be back around the life and the people he had loved so much. I don’t know how he thought he was going to handle all the expenses on his Air Force pension, but, God bless him, I know he had a wonderful time.

Robin left precisely $10,000 in Veteran’s Administration life insurance to split between me and my sister Susan. In his will, he named me as Executrix and before he died, he profusely apologized for leaving me such a mess. We had a good laugh about it. He also expressed deep regret that he had never pulled his memoirs together into any sort of book form. I promised to finish and write his book for him, which is what I did over a very long year, with the great help of Ed Rasmius as editor and co-writer. That book is now at the publisher’s. The current plan is to publish spring of 2010 but I won’t know that date for a while. Stay tuned.

In my dad’s will he left all of his papers and military documents to the Air Force Academy library. He left all of his physical possessions and military memorabilia to me and to Susie. During the last few months of his life, when I lived with him in Steamboat, we spent many hours talking about the dispensation of his papers and memorabilia. He wanted me to give some of the papers also to Air University at Maxwell AFB because that library, along with the Library of Congress, is the top archival repository for historical documents and is open to all for research. He wished different pieces of memorabilia to be donated to the Museum of Flight in Seattle (American Fighter Aces), the AF Museum in Dayton, the Mighty Eighth in Georgia and the Smithsonian’s Air & Space museum in Washington DC, plus many smaller museums owned by friends around the country, and to individuals and family members.

When I moved out of Robin’s rented house three months after he died, I moved all of his stuff into a rented, secure 10x10x8 storage unit. Then I spent from November of 2007 to December 1st, 2008 writing his biography, as I had promised. During that time, I dug into the two dozen boxes of papers, official documents, photographs, diaries and written memoirs to complete the tremendous research necessary to pull the book together but I never took the time to dispense any of the memorabilia, which remained safely in storage. Good thing!

Now for the big news and the purpose of this email to all of you: In order to pay off Robin’s debts, the Probate Court of Routt County, Colorado ordered me two months ago to start selling ALL of his military memorabilia, even the papers, in any manner I could. All proceeds go to the Estate of Robin Olds, supervised by the Court, NOT to me or to my sister. I will be eventually repaid down the line for funeral expenses and out-of-pocket expenses related to Executrix duties, but the vast majority (IRS and credit card debt) is around $70,000, with probate attorney fees and creditor legal fees climbing on top of that.

Yes, it’s a big mess, to say the least, but it’s my fiduciary duty to close his estate. I’ve been working diligently (in addition to my ‘real’ job at a private Vail Resorts Club) to catalog, photograph and describe the collection, plus research the best way to sell. Various AF groups have offered to buy the whole lot and then auction off for their profit, but what they can offer comes nowhere near the amount it will take to pay the debts. As a result, I have decided to work with two online auction houses: www.rrauction.com (just autographs) and www.manions.com (Manion’s International Auction House) to handle the entire collection. The director of Manion’s is also a great fan of Robin’s and a 30-year expert appraiser of military memorabilia.

I’ve tested the waters slightly by consigning two of Robin’s pieces to www.rrauction.com and any of you who may be interested should check out the current auction immediately. This auction closes May 13th and I’ve been remiss in getting this email out quickly. The two items listed are under the Space and Aviation section. #481 Air Force Book is a beautiful leather bound author’s edition of “American Eagles”, signed by 39 Air Force greats, including Gabby Gabreski, Bud Anderson, Tex Hill, Don Lopez, Joe Kittinger, Joe Engle and many more. The other listing is item #565 –“Great Moments in Aviation History”-a stunning 1982 lithograph - the first painting commissioned by the Air Command and Staff College for the Gathering of Eagles. It depicts many aircraft circling between the earth and moon, signed by over a dozen famous aviators, including Curtis LeMay, Joe Foss, John W. Mitchell, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong, Jimmy Doolittle and Robin Olds, of course! This is worth just logging onto the site to look at it. I may eventually consign more autographed lithographs to this RRauction.com site in the future. I still have over 20 lithographs at home. Robin kept them rolled up and stored in mailing tubes – all in excellent condition.

The memorabilia collection contains all his papers and items saved since West Point, including battle maps, commemorative silver mugs, plaques, awards, uniforms, flight suits, squadron patches, photographs, scrapbooks, autographed biographies, caps, monogrammed shirts, insignia, official (now-declassified) Pentagon reports and interviews, diaries, letters, plus well over 200 military history and aviation books, most signed to Robin by the author.

If I tried to do this all by myself, I’d spend the next two years listing things online piece-by-piece, dealing with buyers and then packing and shipping. There’s just no way for me to do that and hold down my job or have a life. Manion’s International Auction House is going to bring a truck and pack and pick everything up, appraise each piece and list as a special “Robin Olds Collection” auction on their home page, plus do a big media announcement about the auction. The items are scheduled to be picked up from here the first week of June and will be online by the end of June/first of July. I will send out another reminder before that auction goes online.

In the meantime, I am listing several items on the Manion’s “List-it-Yourself” store section of their website starting Tuesday morning, May 12 and will continue to add a few pieces a week as time allows. These are very specific to Wings, squadrons and USAFA and I’m hoping that Robin’s former pilots and friends might want a piece of his memorabilia for home dens, basement bars or O-Clubs. Enter www.manions.com and click on “Stores”. It will be listed as The Estate of Robin Olds.

My dearest wish is to hold onto his framed medals, complete with all their accompanying certificates until the very last and then donate them to a museum. My sister and daughter and I will be keeping only a few photographs and one or two personal items each. That’s OK. There’s no way to store all of this. The memorabilia belongs with all of you. I’m just sorry that I can’t give it away. It is sad for me to do this, because of Robin’s and my plans to donate all, but it’s also OK, because there’s just no way I could handle storing and dispensing all of this over the years ahead. I’m hoping that some Robin admirers will purchase items and donate to the many large and small aviation museums around the country for tax write-offs.

At some point in the near future, I’ll be launching a website named www.robinolds-fighterpilot.com. I am hoping to turn the website into a great, ongoing informational and fighter pilot community site, with links to squadrons, museums, forums and wings around the world…a place where Air Force and Aviation buffs can gather and talk to each other.

If any of you have any suggestions on other ways to get this done, please feel free to let me know. In the meantime, wish me luck!

Sending love and thanks to all,

Christina Olds

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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 8:26 am 
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That is just SAD that this collection be broken and that the final wishes of one of America's finest be thrown aside in this manor.

Hey Paul Allen! You could "fund" this a make right this mess and keep this historical aviation treasure trove together, or at lest dispensed to the wishes of Robin Olds. Could not the publisher of the book deal forward a "deposit"? Or are there not enough people that care about aviation and read to make it a profitable venture. They give millions to Gore for his pablum but for a true American hero, just not worth it?!? Boils my blood!! If the publisher had a "Reserve a book today" drive, would people preorder enough to offset these costs?


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:52 am 
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Sounds like he was a victim of his own success in part. The court is doing the right thing. I hope all the entities he owed money to get paid back. What do you mean "thrown aside"? You need to be responsible for all your actions, including the financial ones. I don't think a famous fighter pilot should be treated any differently than you or I would ("Duke" Cunningham for example).

And look at the bright side... You could win one of those auctions and have a piece of Robin Olds' memorabilia for yourself!

I'm all for telling Paul Allen how he should spend his money. Think he'll listen?


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:57 pm 
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Sad end...everyone must know those iconic photos.

You won't see many like him again - as for him being 'a victim of his own success' it may be better to leave the moralising out as most of us wouldn't have been good enough to clean his shoes...


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 Post subject: I disagree
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 1:12 pm 
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Quote:
most of us wouldn't have been good enough to clean his shoes...


I disagree. BDK would have done a great job cleaning his shoes...

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 Post subject: Re: I disagree
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 3:55 pm 
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Forgotten Field wrote:
I disagree. BDK would have done a great job cleaning his shoes...
But just remember, I don't do windows!


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 Post subject: Olds
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 6:16 pm 
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A very sad state of affairs imo.Hats off to one of the greatest fighter pilots of all times.Strength for his family.

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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 9:43 pm 
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Is there a way to get ahold of his daughter...I'd like to send a few dollars, know it will not help, but I'd rather have her have it. Maybe set up some sort of fund for his daughters. I'd hate to see his things sold off to individuals, and not in museums.


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 10:44 pm 
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From what was written above, most of the debt is to the IRS and attorneys.

Yo, IRS - he *did* his bit. Yo, Citibank? *Likewise*. Given the trillion-dollar (10^12) bailout, you'd think they might write this relatively measly 10^4 debt off as a rounding error.


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:15 pm 
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skydaddy61 wrote:
Yo, IRS - he *did* his bit. Yo, Citibank? *Likewise*. Given the trillion-dollar (10^12) bailout, you'd think they might write this relatively measly 10^4 debt off as a rounding error.
Hey, my money is part of that bailout too, and I don't think there should even have been a bailout. Nonetheless, irresponsible individuals should not be bailed out either, at least that is my opinion. Unless Robin Olds was a young female teenager, nobody forced him to slide that credit card. He was having fun relishing in the hero worship and chose to act irresponsibly. He admitted as much by apologising to his family.

So for the purpose of discussion, and as the "devil's advocate," what he did between 40 and 65 years ago should give him some credit against his later actions?

He may have been the greatest fighter pilot ever and a very personable fellow, but to all you idol worshippers please don't forget that he was human. Some people think that OJ should be given a pass because he jumped over some baggage in a Hertz commercial too (and I do understand that the two violations are not even close to equivalent).

I accept him as a hero, but one has to pay their bills... Death and taxes, right?


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:29 pm 
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IMO he paid his debt... in advance.


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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:30 pm 
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skydaddy61 wrote:
IMO he paid his debt... in advance.


Amen brother.

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 Post subject: RO
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:35 pm 
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Taxes are not bills.They are a tax,There is a difference.The grocery store wont come and get you at the point of a gun if you dont pay your bill.

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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:37 pm 
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skydaddy61 wrote:
IMO he paid his debt... in advance.


Look, I have sympathy for the fellow, but that doesn't cut it - at least with the plastic.
By that logic, someone with a record like his should have a right to come up to you and ask for whatever he wants and you'd have a moral obligation to give it to him without expecting him to return it. Being a hero doesn't change your moral responsibilities to your fellow man. If you borrow from the fruits of their labors, you should at least try to repay it, and preferably not borrow if you have no means to repay. Maybe if he'd gotten that book finished he'd have been able to afford more.
The I R S - well... I could see that differently if you twisted my arm a little :wink:.
Still, the guy did a lot for our country and I do appreciate that and wish his family the best!

Ryan

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PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:40 pm 
skydaddy61 wrote:
IMO he paid his debt... in advance.


Exactly.


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