Warbird Information Exchange

all of these stories happened to me or my close friends. I have been active in Warbirds since I was 13. While other kids were playing video games and such, I was working on a B-17 and Me-109 ( HA-1112).
My best friend was Carl Schmieder, he was a board member of Warbird of America, T-6 Lead at Oshkosh, a ICAS ACE, and help start the FAST program. He also helped me to get my A&P, and private pilots certs. I was flying formation before I had my pilots license. Carl dies in the crash of his T-6 in Jan 99.

anyway, here is one of my stories, it is called Show it to him Granpa.

Show it to him Granpa
by
Matthew T. Gunsch
I was a member of the Arizona Wing of the Confederate Airforce when I was younger and the wing was more fun to be around, and one of the events I took part in was one of their first Warbird shows at Falcon Field, what follows is a story of why it is such a privelage to work with Warbirds.

We had been moving planes and setting up fencing panels all morning and I was getting hungry. The show was supposed to open at noon, but we were far from ready and there were a few people looking at the planes we had on display. As I was getting ready to leave I noticed a older gentleman looking in the rear crew door on the B-17. Since we were not ready to open the gates, there was no one to take money for the show or tours, I decided to take him thru the plane for free, then go get lunch. As we went from station to station in the plane I gave him the usual spiel about the crew stations and what crewman did there. He did not ask any questions and just looked around as I was pointing things out. The normal tour exited the plane thru the front hatch after going thru the cockpit. As you step down out of the cockpit and toward to the hatch you can look forward into the nose where the Bombadier and Navigator stations were, we normally did not take tours in there as it is a very small area and the tours tend to back up, but since it was just the two of us, I removed the Bungee cords that were blocking off the nose. When ever I did take someone into the nose I would have them sit in the Bombadier's seat, where they could look thru the Norden Bomb sight and thru the glass nose. When this gentleman sat in the chair, a change came over his face, it is hard to explain, but, you could see he was looking into the past. He proceeded to tell me that he had been a B-17 Bombadier in the 8th Air Force during WWII and had 2 planes shot out from under him. The first one he told me, was hit at the start of a bomb run. He had just leaned over the bomb sight and heard a loud explosion and then it got very windy, he was not hit and did not hear any orders from the pilot, so he stayed at his sight and completed his run. Once the bombs had been dropped and control of the plane released back to the pilot, he sat up, it was then he noticed 2 large holes in the plexiglass nose, right at the level of where his head would have been, had he not been learning over the sight. He turned and it was then he saw that the navigator, who sits behind him and to the left side of the plane, had been hit and killed instantly. It was the only damage they received and they made it back to the base in England.
The second plane did not fair as well, as they were shot down and he became a Prisoner of War. After he said that, he was back in the present and said he better be going, and thanked me for the tour, I said that the pleasure was all mine and thanked him for sharing his story with me. I went to lunch thinking about that man and his story and how many men like him were still around.

The next day, we finally had everything set up and the gates were open and we had a good turn out. I was standing with the B-25 and answering questions, when I saw the gentleman from yesterday, with him was his daughter and grand daughter. He said he wanted to show me a picture of his crew. He had a 8 x 10 picture of him and his crew in front of the B-17that was shot down later over Germany. He pointed to each person and told what happened to each of them, some came home, a lot of them didn't. He told me what it was like in the POW camp and how he was treated. We had been talking for a while when his grand daughter tugged on the sleeve of his jacket and said, “Show it to him Grampa”. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a handkerchief and held it in his open palm. He gently opened the handkerchief and inside was a side view of B-17, about 4inches long, carved out of wood, complete with open bombay doors and markings, He said he carved it out of a bed slat while in the POW camp, and he would have been shot had they found it. I was could not think of a thing to say, other to say thanks for what he did and I was so glad he came back and showed it to me, and as long as I was around, if he wanted to sit in the B-17, come find me and I would let him sit in HIS B-17 as long as he wanted. He put the bed slat B-17 back in his pocket and that he had taken enough of my time, I thanked him again and watched as he, his daughter and grand daughter walked away.

I never saw him again, but his story has stayed with me and I still have the same feeling every time I tell it.

Awesome story...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

That's a fantastic story Matt, thanks for sharing.

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P-51, The Cadillac of the Sky!

WOW! Awesome story Matt. Amazing.

Gary

WOW, thanks for sharing, I remember when we first started going to airshows how excited I was just to be flying our goon. Then at every show I end up talking with someone who has a great story of what happened to them in a C-47 from WWII to Korea to Vietnam. Now when I go to a show I can't wait to meet one of these guys and I treasure each conversation.

Great story Matt....I'd like to echo everyone else's comments by saying "THANKS FOR SHARING!"

John

What a touching story... again, thank you for sharing.

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"It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane." Charles Lindbergh

Great story, Matt!

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Commemorative Air Force
Experimental Aircraft Association
Warbirds of America

What are you waiting for? Join us!

Best way to contact me- email my last name @gmail.com

let me know when you are ready for more

Oh, I think we're ready, Matt.

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P-51, The Cadillac of the Sky!

Excellent Matt - thanks for taking the time to post.

More, more, more I say....

Enjoy the Day! Mark

Terrific story Matt. Thanks for sharing that.

Dan

Any more??
Could we make this a thread for similiar stories and possibly be a sticky thread?

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Cheers,
Peter

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last one for today, I have alot more,

How not to get your
Fighter pilot name


Bob ( last name withheld to protect the guilty) is from ( Classified to protect the easily embarrassed ) where he is a ( need to know basis ) and T-6 owner, but some time before he owned a T-6 Bob came to Deer valley airport and Carl Schmieder, as a very low time pilot with less than 100 hrs, all in Cessna's, with the desire to fly the T-6 Texan, a WWII era advance training plane.


Bob was doing well with learning to fly the T-6, doing take off s, landings, stalls and learning the personality of the T-6. We did all we could to help him with his confidence when during a session of landings and take offs, four of us took it upon ourselves to be judges of his landings. After each landing Bob, with Carl in the backseat, would taxi back to the end of the runway for another takeoff, as he came near where we were standing on the ramp, we would hold up numbered cards to show what we thought of his last landing. He is the only person I have ever known to get a negative score from the judges,


Carl was going out one morning to practice is solo ship acro show and invited Bob along to see what a T-6 could do. After a good breakfast at the airport restaurant, Carl, Bob, Eric Forbes and myself went to the hanger to get the T-6 preflight ed and ready to go. Eric and I did the pre-flight while Carl went over the routine with Bob, telling him what to expect. As I was helping Bob strap into the backseat I made it a point to show him where the airsickness bag was, just in case. As I did with all those I strapped into that seat, the last thing I told them before I closed the canopy was, I don't clean up backseat if they can't handle it. Eric and I watched them taxi out and take off and then we went back into the work hanger until we would hear the sound of the Pratt & Whitney coming back.

After about 30 minutes we heard the sound of the T-6 coming into the pattern and Eric and I went out the back door to watch the break. Over the years we learned to judge how a flight went by how aggressive the break was, in this mornings case, it was a old lady break, slow and gentle. Carl taxied up to the hanger and Eric and I pushed the 6 back into the hanger before they even had a chance to get out. Carl got out of the plane and Bob just kind of sat there. We noticed that he was not his normal color and seemed to be a little dazed. I climbed up to help him get un strapped and found out the reason for the color change, Bob had made a amazing discovery during that flight, in that he found he could fit his entire breakfast, complete with coffee, into his shirt pocket. Bob later said he could not get to the airsick bag in time and remembered what I had told him, so he used what was the most readily available place, his pocket. Bob slowly got out and went to the restroom to clean up while Carl found a T-shirt for Bob to wear.
When Bob got back to the ready room Carl gave him the shirt and then the four of us debriefed the flight. At the end of the de-brief Carl pointed out that this was a very special flight, and was in fact, THE flight that defines what a fighter pilot was to be called for the rest of his life, and from now on, Some are know as Hunter, Sharpshooter, or other names that sound like they belong in the cockpit of a fighter, after today, Bob ( last name withheld to protect the guilty and easily embarrassed )would be known to us as “CHUCKER”.

Great story again Matt...brings back many "vomit" memories and stories of riding around in C-130's while waiting to hit the drop zone on parachute jumps.

John