Aviators Recall Glory Days : Restored Planes Bring Back Memories of War

On the same field where thousands of World War II pilots received their preflight training, two restored 1940s-vintage bombers landed Friday with a great beating of propellers, bringing memories of glory and of loss.

The B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator, each with its own colorful history, landed on the airfield behind Martin Aviation, carrying small groups of men who had piloted or served as crew members on similar craft during World War II. It was part of a nationwide tour to show off the painstakingly restored planes.

On the Tarmac, dozens of other former pilots and crew members, now gray-haired but wearing their old flight jackets, broke into grins as the planes landed. Friends and two generations of family members waited alongside, sharing the fliers’ memories.

Stepping off the B-24 was William F. Davenport, who flew 35 bombing missions over Germany in 1944 as a navigator on another B-24.

“After 48 years, it sure was different,” he said, the wind from the craft’s four slowing propellers tossing his hair. “It was quite a thrill.”

Davenport, 69, of North Tustin, a retired official of the Municipal Water District of Orange County, glanced back at the bomber, noting that it had been restored to “very near its World War II condition.” But he chuckled over one indicator of the passage of time.

“That bomb bay seems kind of tight now. We used to just waltz right through there, but most of us have put on a little girth since then,” Davenport said with a smile, patting his midriff.

Only a couple of hundred feet away, as the B-17 touched down, a different memory of the war was being brought to life. Karl Meisenhelder 34, of Pico Rivera recalled that his uncle, 2nd Lt. John E. Meisenhelder, was a crew member aboard a B-24 that had flown over New Guinea in 1943. He never returned and was listed as missing in action. He was 22 years old.

Karl Meisenhelder’s 5-year-old son, Erich, stood by his father. The boy wore the lost lieutenant’s cap and had his Purple Heart medal pinned to his T-shirt.

“This is some of the memorabilia they sent home,” Karl Meisenhelder said. “I thought (watching the planes land) would be a good way to honor the family.”

The event was part of B-24 and B-17 Week in Orange County, proclaimed in a resolution by the County Board of Supervisors. The elaborate plaque notes that the planes’ visit to Orange County commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the 8th Air Force. The landing spot was once Eddie Martin Field, before the military took it over in 1942 and renamed it Santa Ana Army Air Field and used it to train new pilots.

Both planes were restored to their World War II condition by the nonprofit Collings Foundation in Stow, Mass., with donated time and materials. The B-24’s restoration required complete disassembly and work on 80% of its 1.2 million parts, a job that cost $1 million, Martin Aviation officials said.

This B-24 was first built in Fort Worth in 1944 by Consolidated Aircraft Co. It was transferred from the U.S. Air Force to the Royal Air Force, where it was used for patrol and bombing missions in the Pacific. It later flew in the Indian Air Force for 20 years.

The B-17 was built in Long Beach by Douglas Aircraft in April, 1945, too late for combat. But it served in the Air/Sea 1st Rescue Squadron and the Military Air Transport Service. In 1952, it was used to test the force of three nuclear explosions, then given a 13-year rest before being sold as part of an 800-ton scrap pile.

After an overhaul, the B-17 flew again, this time serving for 20 years as a fire bomber dropping water and borate on forest fires. It was sold again in 1986, this time to someone who restored the craft to its World War II shape. It was severely damaged in a crash at an air show in Western Pennsylvania in 1987, but restored once again.