The United States

Air Force Museum

Wright-Patterson 

Air Force Base

Monday 14 October

As stated in a Prior Blog Post We remained in Dayton, Ohio for a few days after the USS Ranger (CVA-61) reunion.  We visited the Museum on 14 October to see those sections we did not have time to see on the Official Reunion Visit Day.  

We visited all the Areas we did not have time to see during the first visit.  The World War I time frame was very interesting in that the Aircraft reflected the early days of Aerial Combat which were developing.  The time spend in the Vietnam War gallery was also most interesting for Me.  Among the many planes there, the F-4 Phantom was the plane I looked forward to seeing because when I was on the USS Ranger (CVA-61) for the 1962-1963 Cruise (Sounds so much more fun that deployment) to the Western Pacific we were the first aircraft carrier to take the Fabulous Phantom on a Cruise to this part of the World.  

Now, let me present all the pictures I took:

The Fabulous Phantom

I discussed Earlier

The above picture caused me

to research the role of the

Candy Man which is included below.

Thanks to Wikipedia!!

Halvorsen pioneered the idea of dropping candy bars and bubble gum with handmade miniature parachutes, which later became known as "Operation Little Vittles"

Douglas C-54 Skymaster landing at Berlin Tempelhof Airport, 1948

Lieutenant Halvorsen's role in the Berlin Airlift was to fly one of many C-54 cargo planes used to ferry supplies into the starving city.^[13] During his flights he would first fly to Berlin, then deeper into Soviet-controlled areas. Halvorsen had an interest in photography and on his days off often went sightseeing in Berlin and shot film on his personal handheld movie camera.^[4] One day in July, he was filming planes taking off and landing at Tempelhof, the main landing site for the airlift. While there, he saw about thirty children lined up behind one of the barbed-wire fences. He went to meet them and noticed that the children had nothing. Halvorsen remembers: "I met about thirty children at the barbed wire fence that protected Tempelhof's huge area. They were excited and told me that 'when the weather gets so bad that you can't land, don't worry about us. We can get by on a little food, but if we lose our freedom, we may never get it back.'"^[14] Touched, Halvorsen reached into his pocket and took out two sticks of gum to give to the children. The kids broke them into little pieces and shared them; the ones who did not get any sniffed the wrappers.^[2] Watching the children, so many of whom had absolutely nothing, Halvorsen regretted not having more to give them.^[15] Halvorsen recorded that he wanted to do more for the children, and so told them that the following day he would have enough gum for all of them, and he would drop it out of his plane. According to Halvorsen, one child asked "How will we know it is your plane?" to which Halvorsen responded that he would wiggle his wings, something he had done for his parents when he first got his pilot's license in 1941.^[16]

That night, Halvorsen, his copilot, and his engineer pooled their candy rations for the next day's drop. The accumulated candy was heavy, so in order to ensure that no children were hurt by the falling package, Halvorsen made three parachutes out of handkerchiefs and tied them to the rations.^[17] In the morning when Halvorsen and his crew made regular supply drops, they also dropped three boxes of candy attached to handkerchiefs. They made these drops once a week for three weeks. Each week, the group of children waiting at the Tempelhof airport fence grew significantly.^[18]

The six engine exhaust pipes of

the North American XB-70 Bomber Program.

The Plane is known as the Valkyrie

and was to replace the B-52 Bomber!

That Never Happened.

It could fly at Mach 3!  

The Valkyrie had a very large

Landing System

My Bride Posing with

a Famous Aircraft

Proof that the Fabulous Phantom

was with the USS Ranger (CVA-61)

in 1963.

I took this picture when

we were inport

Beppu, Japan

I was standing in

Vulture's Row

We concluded the day with a Visit to a Real Farm, which was also a Tourist Attraction near Dayton.  Young's Dairy was our final stop.  This was also meaningful to Me because I was a 4-H Member in My Youth and we showed Jersey Cows at the Clayton Country Fair and even the Iowa State Fair in 1955.  One of the Staff Members at the Reunion Hotel encouraged us to visit this Farm.

Of course, the Ice Cream was Great.

  Made with Jersey Cream!!

You have just had the opportunity to view 178 Pictures from our October 14th Adventure!!