Aluminum Overcast in Caldwell, ID

[Tulio]

Yesterday, today (Wednesday) and tomorrow, EAA's B-17 Aluminum Overcast was and will be at the Caldwell, ID airport.

The weather on Tuesday was windy and rainy, today was overcast, cold and very windy. They expect to fly tomorrow some of the people who booked flights on it.

This was a first for me, since until today, I had never seen Aluminum Overcast "in the flesh."

Also present at the airfield, was Vultee BT-13(?) N9743N; according to what I was told, the airplane was in a ferry flight from Georgia, to the new owner's home field in Oregon, and decided to stay for the B-17's visit.

I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Joseph "Joe" Meyers, from Boise.

He is a WW-II veteran, having flown as a B-17 belly turret gunner in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, flying out from North Africa, and then from Italy, against targets in Italy, and France.

He was, all 84 years of him, a very nice guy to talk to, and evidently proud by his prior service, and thrilled to be able to see a B-17.

He was wearing a Blue jacket emblazoned with a B-17, a B-17 belt buckle, and had with him a framed photo of himself during WW-II, and his certificate of completing 50 missions in the ETO.

He also had with him a personal diary that he kept while flying in WW-II; according to his notes, they dropped 269,000 pounds of bombs on the enemy.

His airplane was shot down once, hit by an air-to-air rocket, which forced them to ditch in the Mediterranean -no casualties- and becoming the second airplane thus shot down by the Germans at that time.

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Earlier today, I met Brian Newman, who restores Stearman airplanes.

Also found out that there is a P-51D being restored in Caldwell, although the owner does not want publicity about his airplane.

Saludos,


Tulio