WWII Fighter Ace reunited with his P-51 (Good D-Day remembrance/Kleenex alert)

GrayEagles.org ^ | Chris Woods

[Mat_Helm]

Great story and video. Thanks for sharing it. My brother owns a PT-22 Ryan he just finished restoring. When he was polishing the fuselage he found where pilot cadets who flew the trainer had etched their names and or initials on the aircraft. Makes you wonder what aircraft they flew after basic flight training, what did they fly after basic primary and went on to fly combat in the war, did they survive and are any of them living today. My brother is attempting to find out but it may be impossible to obtain the original log books.

I always wanted to be a fighter pilot but had a heart murmur so jet flight was out. I did the next best thing and worked flight simulators and weapons trainers for the F/A-18 Hornet working for Hughes Aircraft company, culminating in training pilots up and through the gulf war. I did some training sorties operating the simulator for Scott Spiker "Spike" who was the first F/A-18 Navy Pilot shot down in 1991 and did not return home. That was twenty years ago and seems like yesterday. Young men are still training everyday for combat and flying fighters into harms way overseas day and night to protect our freedom still. Pray for them and their families.