Amen. I’d never even heard of this guy until I read the book, “Hunting warbirds.” Frankly, I thought the author had made him up for a long time afterward.
There’s always some knucklehead out there who feels that someone with the means or money to acquire something historical somehow doesn’t have the right to it. For example, I own a WW2 Jeep that is documented being used by the Navy in WW2. Well, I’m an old Army guy, and that’s how MY Jeep is painted. Some folks in the area who know of this Jeep have come to shows and given me all kinds of crap about how I can’t have it painted that way. I tell them to go find their own Jeep and paint it the way they want it but to shut the F up. The funny thing is that of all these folks saying this stuff, NONE of them own Jeeps!
Armchair types.
Gotta hate ‘em!
Jay wrote:
Sorry Randy but after your recent visit to Walters I feel compelled to comment.
I have known Walter since 1978 along with his collections of "JUNK". If not for Walter, Ed Maloney, Earl Reinert and others, we would not have some of the rare aircraft that we have today.
The reason Walter re-acts to people as he does is because he has been "beat up" by people invading his privacy. How many recent interviews have you seen concerning his collection? None, because in the past he has been referred to as a old junk collector that doesn't deserve to posess these rare aircraft.
People trespass on his property, they photograph without permission and publish these photos without permission. When they do write about Walter it is usually not in the best context.
Furthermore, all the postings of his address, maps to his property and satellite photos have brought more scrutiny by the 'powers that be" to further threaten his personal collection. Remember, this is his home, not a museum. (Walter did have a museum at the Youngstown Airport from 1990-1997)
We should all show a little respect and gratitude to Walter for his contributions to saving our aircraft heritage.
Jaybo