Saturday, November 19, 2005

Just another boring day

M*A*S*H
The reunion that everybody has been waiting for Radar and Hot Lips together again, or at least Gary Burghoff and Cathy. Since Gary (Radar) lives in Citrus County they gave him an honorary day at a little park near where he lives so we decided to go say hi. We got there about an hour early and were sitting in the car listening to the Michigan – Ohio game; there were about 30 people already in line when he came walking up. He walked up and got in the end of the line behind a 75 year old lady, after a few seconds he asked her “what time is that guy suppose to get her” she turned around and said at 1:00 o’clock then she turned her back on him. After about 3 seconds it must of dawned on her because she let out a little scream and said “you’re him”, it was a great way to make an entrance. We were probably 40th in line and it took us about an hour and a half before we got up to him, he didn’t rush anybody, he posed for pictures signed whatever you brought with you and answered any questions that you had. He told a few stories about being on the set of M*A*S*H, and was really very funny. When we left there were probably another 80 to 100 more people in line.
Oh, by the way Michigan lost it in the 4th quarter.
more later

Monday, November 07, 2005

The Mighty Eighth

We spent the better part of the day walking through the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. If you ever saw the movie “12 O’clock High” and who hasn’t, then you’ll know what this museum is all about. The movie was filmed on location with the Mighty Eighth and just about all the film footage in the movie is actual footage of the air battles. Probably 75% of the movie was taken from the experiences of the crewmembers of the Mighty Eighth. They have tons of exhibits and five different movies, the best part is a big room that is designed like the airfield in England that they flew out of. You start by entering the Nissen Hut (now called a Quonset hut) here you get a pre-flight briefing for your bombing mission in a B-17. They will also teach you the difference between a B-17 & a B-24. Then you go out with the maintance crew to make sure the aircraft is ready for flight, then it’s off you go into the wild blue yonder. They have what they call the “immersion theater” which has about 6 different screens and you’re right in the middle of them, flying a bombing mission to destroy the oil refiners in Germany. Other then a flight simulator this is as close as you’ll ever come to being Gregory Peck on his 25th mission. In another part of the building the have it set you where you’re a waist gunner with a 50 caliber trying to shot a bunch of MIG’s out of the sky. The guide we had was 8 years old when the war started, but his big brother was old enough to join up and he did. He was one of the original pilots and flew his plane and crew from the USA to England; he was also one of the first to fly 25 missions just to have them raise the number to 30 for rotation home. He flew his 30 missions and only lost two aircraft but also a few crew men, After his 30 missions (which he flew in 52 days) they told him if he flew 5 more missions they would promote him to Captain, which would have made him the youngest Captain in history, he had just turned 19. He declined their offer and rotated home to enjoy life until he died in 1989.


The other thing that we found fascinating was the Memorial Garden, It’s kind of set up like an old English garden with some broken gates and small brick walls, each plane had it’s own name and logo painted on it, pretty much whatever the Pilot wanted. In the garden the have carved stone, granite or marble plaques with the name & logo of the aircraft and names of the crew members for most of the planes, also listed behind the name is whether they were, KIA, MIA or POW. During WW II the Mighty Eighth had over 24,000 killed in action & over 28,000 taken as prisoners of war.
When the museum opened in 1996, General Jimmy Dolittle’s son had his tombstone moved from Arlington to a place in the garden here, he said it’s what his dad would have wanted.
They have a nice little English pub style restaurant in the corner of the museum for lunch.
Admission is $10.00 a head but well worth it, we’ve already decided that we’re going to stop again next year.