Final Flight

The Background

There is an old saying. If God had meant man to fly, he would have given him wings. There are those of us that fly to become passengers, some of us fly to earn a living. Yet sometimes there are those that fly who are destined to become heroes.

I had always been interested in World War 2 aircraft, as a kid I grew up making many model aircraft. Spitfires, Mustangs, B17 Flying Fortresses were all at one time or another hanging from my ceiling. Fueling boyhood dreams of flying these magnificent aircraft into battle.
So here I am, forty years later, looking at a poster for World War 2 planes that would be on display at a local airport. They were also offering flights if you could afford it ( which I Couldn't ). There would be four planes on display, a P51 mustang fighter, a B24 Liberator, a B17 Flying Fortress and a B25 Mitchell. The last plane I was particularly interested in, as it was the plane my girlfriends ninety six year old father flew in back in World War 2. I thought he would get a real kick out of seeing the type of plane he used to be aircrew in.
For those of you who don't know, the B25 Mitchell was a twin engined medium bomber flown by the United States in World War 2. It was perhaps most famous for the Doolittle Raid. When, in April 1942, sixteen B25's took off from the deck of the USS Hornet to bomb Tokyo.
It was the B25's most glorious mission. One man who was on reserve for that mission ( though he didn't actually go ) was my girlfriends father, Robert (Bob)
I called my girlfriend to let her know and she agreed it would be a fantastic idea, to see a B25 in flight one last time would be an enormous thrill for her Dad.