05.19.07
Playing Tourist Part 3
Since my dad has lived through WWII, he has had a life-long interest in war history, particularly WWII. While my cousins were out here visiting from the Philippines, they found an Aviation Museum in Chino called, Planes of Fame. My dad found that this museum actually houses actual WWII planes, and yesterday we played the tourist again and visited this museum. It turns out that we visited the day just before their air show, May 19 and 20. Many of the planes were being moved out in preparation for the airshow, so we got a chance to watch planes being moved about, worked on, and “flown!” Ha! What a treat! Even though my dad inhabits a 76-year-old body, I sure saw the little boy in him come out as he spotted planes that he remembered so well seeing as a young 13-year-old. Naturally, I had to take pictures. It was nice having my dad there tell us which planes were what. The first two my dad recognized were these fighter planes:
Certainly, I can’t attach pictures of all the planes they had, but I do want to share a few more such as this Pacific Princess below. My dad said he remembered seeing a lot of those flying over the Philippines. The Pacific Princess was a bomber plane.
From the shot above one can see the gunner dome on the top facing backwards. Another gunner was situated right in the tip of the nose. 
On the right is a closer view of that. Just click onto the picture for an enlarged view. While we were walking along the lot, vendors were setting up their stalls for the next day’s airshow. Some of the WWII planes are still good to fly and are being flown as I type between 11AM-4PM today. They were all being lined up behind the orange partition, but lucky us, we were able to see three P38s right in the front. 
Here’s a picture of me boys in front of a couple of them. At this point we were able to sit down along with other photographers to watch the planes taking off for test flights. Judging by the looks of their cameras, they must have been professional photographers. No itty bitty digital cameras like mine, ha! 
After we had our fill of watching the planes, we headed back and ran into a war helicopter that had actually been flown in Vietnam. Not the most flattering picture, but hey, it was a bright, sunny, windy day, ha! The pilot was there along with the crew that flew her in, and they shared with us that this helicopter was stored for 10 years after Vietnam until the museum was able to acquire it. 
They then refurbished it, and it is still in flying condition today. The weapons, however, have been rendered inactive, thus they encouraged people to climb aboard and handle the guns, if they liked. Here are two of my boys checking it out. It’s hard to think that young men the same age as my son actually flew these helicopters and manned the guns. One of the crew told us that he had actually serves one tour in Vietnam when he was 21-years-old. And at that time the other crew members called him “gramps” because he was the oldest one there. The others were 17 and 18 years old.
There were lots of other planes there that I wish I could upload all the pictures! They had a Japanese fighter plane, some rescue planes, carriers, surveillence planes, etc. I love to compare them to more modern planes and imagine what it must have been like to fly them. I don’t think I’ve ever flown in a propeller plane. My father told me that when he first came to America, propeller planes were all there was. The seats he sat in were just like old wooden auditorium chairs bolted to the floor, ha! I remember reading about the Wright Brothers and how they had first flown their plane in 1903. Shortly afterwards, the military was drawing up contracts with them and laying down their “specifications.” One specification that really got me was that the planes “must” be able to reach a speed of 40 mph! Ha! And to think now commercial airlines are flying at 400-500mph, and jet planes such as the A-12 Blackbird flown in January 1963 were reaching speeds of Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. The advancements in some parts of technology is staggering. 
But before I sign off, here’s one “older” jet plane. For some reason, this one reminds me of the era of I dream of Genie, heheh. 
And finally, here’s another shot with my dad in front of a B17. They used to call this the “Flying Fortress.” It was a big bomber plane before the B29s. My dad really enjoyed this museum as did I. My boys only thought it was “okay,” and my mom just couldn’t wait to go home, ha! Hmmm. Anyway, my dad asked me to make copies of the pictures I took because his brother, my uncle, will likely appreciate these as well. It’s really fun for me to hear their stories, really. One of my uncles told me that it was during WWII that he saw his first “American.” He was wondering what they looked like, and while he was walking along the river, he saw an army tank parked across the river with a G.I. leaning against it. So, he casually walked closer and closer, kicking the stones and water along the way. When finally he got close enough to the G.I., he looked up, and he saw the G.I. was “black!” Ha ha! Well, that G.I. was not only the first American he saw, but also the first Black American he had ever seen. Tee hee! And boy was my uncle surprised! One of my other uncles was older during the war, and he liked to hang around the G.I.s. He even became friends with some of them, and when I visited him in the Philippines, he even showed me some of the things they gave him that he saved like military issue utensils, ha! They were very happy when the Americans arrived because just prior, the Japanese had occupied the area and were treating them all very badly. The boys, including all the boys in my fathers household were required to go out and help the Japanese clear the way and lay down asphalt for runways for their planes. My grandfather would hide the girls in the family. The area in which they lived was heavily occupied by the Japanese and eventually, the Americans bombed the whole area out because the area was just too heavily infiltrated. That’s when my father’s family had to walk to Manila, and that’s where he eventually met my mom! Ha! There is good in everything, isn’t there?
Toodles for now!
Marlakins 
