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The Beginning The Photo below is what
got me started or restarted into warbirds and then eventually airshows. The first of the two weeks was spent assisting with the Conference. The second was spent with the officers and senior non-coms trying to find something for all of us to do, otherwise known as "make work". If we had been at Grayling, we would have been the base police force. Since our secondary MOS was infantry, we migh have gone out into the woods and played army for a week. We could do neither at Selfridge. So, one fateful day, I was given the assignment of guarding an empty building for the entire day. I went down to the building, sat down in the chair at one of the old gray desks the military used to have (and may still have), pulled out a Louis L'Amour western novel from my fatigue shirt, and settled in for a leisurely read. Towards the end of the day, I had finished my book and was looking for something else to keep me occupied until the end of the shift. I distinctly remember pulling open the center drawer of the desk and finding a copy of the 1977 Selfridge Air Show Program. Thumbing through it, I came to the centerfold shown above with some of the Confederate Air Force (now Commemorative Air Force) (CAF) aircraft pictured, and told myself, this was for me. Actually, it just brought to the surface interests in WWII aircraft and history I had in growing up as a child. I had repressed that interest as I grew older, with issues to contend with. Like trying to get through engineering school while being mathematically challenged. Getting through engineering school during the tumultuous late-sixties was my first and only priority. Leafing further through the program, I found more exciting warbird photos and information on the Confederate Air Force, including a mailing address for the group. When I returned
home, I sent a letter to Rebel Field in Harlingen, TX and awaited a
reply. When it came, I filled out the paper work, sent it in and
became a "Colonel" in the CAF. So, I went from being an
enlisted man in the the MING
to Colonel in the CAF all in the same month. This set off a long
chain of events which brought me to my present level of interest and
this website. Just joining the CAF would not have gotten me here by
itself, as I would have soon lost interest if there was nothing locally to do.
Luckily for me, CAF Colonel Lew Shake in Indianapolis thought the same
thing. He sent me a letter the next spring, indicating he was
interested in forming a local chapter (Squadron or Wing) of the CAF.
This resulted in the Indiana Wing of the CAF that still exists today.
In 1981 the IN Wing started doing air shows for fund raising. In
the first airshow
I had a minor role. But in the second, I took over the procurement of the warbirds,
which I continued to do for the subsequent Indianapolis Airshows until
they
ceased operation in 2013. I didn't go out and start
attending 20 or so aviation events a year, like I do today. I had
a family to raise and a job to go to. There were a lot
of steps in-between, but the program below and the two sets of CAF Photos
and information set me on a new lifetime direction.
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