Archive for the ‘Photography Blog’ Category

“I just finished spending about 9 days at Florida’s 3 stops, Boca Raton, Pompano Beach and Ft Lauderdale. My time was spent at or around the B17, answering questions and speaking to people, many of them seeing the planes for the first time , living history, speaking to a dinosaur.
One day as I was leaving the airport one of the Collings people told me that a gentleman made a donation, paying for a ride for a veteran. He chose me, little did I know what I was in for. It took 2 crew members to get me to a position behind the pilots position. One man behind me lifting me, the other manipulating my feet. Exiting the plane was just as difficult, but the ride was well worth it, it brought back memeoies of when I was 20 years old.”

Jules Horowitz, B-17 pilot, 99th BG, 50 missions/sorties
His tour was from 7/19/43-2/13/44

BOCA RATON, FL — As U.S. air power rocked Germany during World War II, Archie L. Carswell, then 18, was at a base in England loading bombs, ammunition and supplies on B-17s and B-24s.

So when he heard that a few of the vintage planes were touching down at an airport near his Boca Raton home, he brought Irene, his wife of 65 years, to see them.

“They bring back memories,” said the 86-year-old, one of several U.S. Army Air Corps veterans who welcomed the airplanes at Avitat Boca Raton, 3300 Airport Road. “That’s why I am here. I want to see what they look like now.”

Carswell had basic training on the Avitat site and met his wife a month after coming to Boca Raton from Georgia.

“We came here, got your training, go over, fought a war and came back,” he said. “It makes me feel good that I survived because a lot of us didn’t make it back home to see this.”

South Floridians wishing to relive a bit of history can do so until Feb. 8 while the planes are here and in Broward County Click here for restaurant inspection reports. The last B-24 bomber in the world, a B-17 Flying Fortress and a P-51C Mustang fighter will be on display at Avitat through Sunday.

The Massachusetts-based Collings Foundation’s annual Wings of Freedom Tour then will move to Anthony Aviation at Pompano Beach Air Park Wednesday through Friday and Hangar 63 at Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? - Click Here. Executive Airport Feb. 6-8.

Several aviation buffs, mostly octogenarians and veterans of that last big war, shared stories as they milled around the planes.

“It’s a really mixed blessing,” said John Bury, 87, who flew 28 combat missions as a navigator in a B-17.

The Highland Beach resident flew on a B-17 again last year, which evoked a mixture of “some chills and some very happy, pleasant memories.”