Warbird Information Exchange

from the newspaper a few days ago. somebody vandalized the wright brothers grave stones at their burial site in dayton. i hope the a--holes had a good time!! what idiots would do something so sick to anyone let alone the wrights?? 62 grave stones damaged also including paul laurence dunbar a famous poet. 25 thousand dollars in damages. a job well done sickos!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Besides being a warbird nut, I am also a Graver (findagrave.com) and I have spent a lot of time in graveyards. I am always amazed at the blatant disrespect for the departed. Sad to see. Our future leaders of America...

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Andrew King
Air Museum Director with no Museum to Direct
Open to Suggestions

Same here. I located, then helped preserve, a small forgotten family cemetery as a teenager, then went on to locate, document, and publicize several others in my area to safeguard them from developers who might otherwise quietly bulldoze 'em. For some reason vandalism is a real problem with cemeteries, nothing new there; but developers can actually be much worse since they are capable of obliterating them utterly, and forever, with about as much forewarning.

I'm a little relieved to understand the Wright plot wasn't actually targeted specifically.

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Cheers,
Kurt Maurer
League City, Texas

PIC, Ford 6600 pulling Rhino batwing up and down the runway

Misdirected kids I'm sure. At some point in their lives I hope the regret their actions.

Interesting historic connection is that the cemetery was founded by John Van Cleve, the son of Benjamin Van Cleve. BVC is locally well known for his memoir that details his journey from New Jersey to what is today Ohio in the mid 1780's. Back then it was still known as the "Northwest Territory". His memoir is insightful as is detail early pioneer life in the midwest as well as his personal experiences during the "Northwest Indian Wars"

If anyone is interested a copy of his memoir is kept online and is free to download and read. I found it very interesting to read alone with google maps open and traces his journeys.

http://www.archive.org/details/memoirsofbenjami00vancrich

Shay
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Semper Fortis

I believe Van Cleve was an ancestor of the Wrights..on their mother's side, IIRC.
They made a bike called the Van Cleve.

Since Dunbar's grave was also molested maybe it will become a federal case under hate crime laws.
He was a fairly well-known African American poet.
His home between 1904-06 is part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park (I'm really not sure why since he doesn't have any connection to aviation) but he was a friend and classmate of the Wrights.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.