Countywide : WWII Bomber to Be Displayed at Airport

A B-17 bomber is headed on a mission straight for John Wayne Airport, scheduled to arrive tonight. It’s not loaded with bombs, though--just a volunteer pilot and crew who are ready to share the vintage aircraft with curious visitors.

Paul Kelly, who flew a B-17 over Europe in World War II, has given many tours of a restored bomber christened Sentimental Journey. He said veteran crews have mixed reactions to seeing the plane.

“Some people won’t get on the airplane,” said Kelly, 71, of Scottsdale, Ariz. “They say it has too many memories of lost friends.

“We saw a lot of our buddies literally blown out of the sky. We used to see airplanes explode right next to us.”

Kelly flew Air Force missions from England during the winters of 1943 and 1944. He said tens of thousands of American airmen were killed on B-17 missions.

Sentimental Journey is part of a collection of World War II planes maintained by the Arizona Wing of the Confederate Air Force, a volunteer organization.

Gene Gephart, 67, another Confederate Air Force member from Mesa, Ariz., said veterans sometimes begin to cry in sorrow when they look at the polished aircraft.

Gephart said one man asked to sit in the tail gunner’s turret, which is now often filled with equipment. He told Gephart that in one World War II battle, as he manned the turret, a bullet sliced through his headphones, just missing his skull. He was also hit in the left shoulder and in the leg.

“I just dumped everything out of there and let him sit in it,” Gephart said.

He said many people are excited to see the plane, including those who flew in B-17s, and in some cases, those who built them.

Gephart said one woman traced the Sentimental Journey’s serial number and discovered that she had inspected the wing construction in 1944, when the plane was built in Long Beach.

Kelly said he has also met women who were hired during the war to fill the labor shortage and had construction or inspection jobs with aircraft companies. “Some women see the airplane and say to me, ‘I want to show you the parts that I built,’ ” Kelly said.

The Sentimental Journey will be parked at the Sunrise Aviation ramp at the southeast end of John Wayne Airport through Sunday. A $3 fee is charged to tour the inside of the plane.

Michael Church, Sunrise’s president, said he plans to add three World War II trainer planes to the exhibit--one used by the U.S. Army, another from the British Royal Air Force and a Swedish Air Force plane.