Reuniting the Only Three Flying Helldivers: The Rarest Gathering in Aviation History WV Ep 45

Rob and Scott sit down and talk about the impending gathering of the three flying Curtiss Helldivers at The National Museum of WWII Aviation in Colorado Springs scheduled for August 20.  They talk about the planes, the pilots and the amount of effort it took to make this ultra rare event happen!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Winged Victory with Rob and Scott, a podcast by the National Museum of World War II Aviation here in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Welcome to Winged Victory with Rob and Scott. I strangely enough am Rob, but more importantly, Scott is Scott. That's me.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

I don't know if it's more importantly, but I'm here.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Well, more importantly, more attractively, take your pick. Whatever. We've got kind of a uh a special day today. Scott had some uh some good news and we want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 2:23

So if you followed our social media or the museum social media at all, or uh maybe you follow Fagin Fighters, um you've probably seen the the uh the news. We're gonna have an amazing uh hell diver reunion. So all three hell divers that are fly currently flying are gonna be coming to our museum and we're gonna have a whole photo flight. Um and it's gonna be during the week, so it's kind of weird that it's during the week. But what's cool is the museum's open, normal tickets. You know, you pay for the museum, you get to come in, you get to see everything, and experience some history.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

You'll take your chances as far as I mean, there's always vagaries, you know, no nothing is is certain, but the intention is that all three of the flyable hell divers in the country are in the world. World. Yeah, all three of those hell divers are intended to be here and to be flying.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

Yeah, I mean it's and it's an amazing deal. Yeah. I mean, you know, we ever since, you know, really before we even got this thing done and Fagan's got their uh Dash 5 done, you know, the buzz has always been, well, when are we going to get all three of these together? Well, and it's taken a little bit of time, and and really Ron Fagin was really the guy that was really kind of pushing this whole thing. Um, you know, he really wanted to see this thing happen. Well, bless his heart. Yeah, and he's made, you know, heaven and earth move, I think, to get it to happen.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Well, and heaven and earth and 80-odd-year-old airplanes. Yeah. I mean, he's coming from Minnesota.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Yeah, they're bringing theirs out from Minnesota. Um, the CAF is in the middle of their air show slash ride season, so I'm not quite sure where they're coming from, but that was kind of the big hiccup, you know, is that we needed to try to get them out in between where that when you know when they're going somewhere. So um that's why it's gonna be during the week. Um, because you know, during the week they got to take off and get to the next show, yeah. Um, wherever that is.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

Well, and then the other two hell divers that are coming in are gonna look very different from this one.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, well, the the Dash 5, uh the CAS is actually kind of painted the same.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Yeah, but they've got those great big four-bladed aeroprop props.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

Yeah, they got the big four-bladed props. If you look at the back of the die flaps, they have all the serrated holes, you know, for the air to flow through. Uh, they didn't learn all that stuff on this one.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

No, well, this is the one they learned on.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

Yeah. Yeah, and there's a lot of stuff that they learn from this.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

But so historically significant airplanes from the the really the first operational model to the last one.

SPEAKER_05 5:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

And I think the the calf bird is overall sea blue.

SPEAKER_04 5:18

No, that's the uh Fagans. Oh, Fagans? The sea blue.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

So it looks a lot like our tiger cats.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah, so that's that's the late war scheme.

SPEAKER_04 5:27

Yeah, the late war scheme. It's a lot easier uh to deal with.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

It's it's gonna be spectacular. Well, yeah, a lot easier to paint.

SPEAKER_04 5:35

Well, and it's glossy paint too, so it's a lot easier to clean and everything else. You know, these yeah, this thing was a it was fun to paint, let me tell you. It's a lot of fun. You think flat paint's pretty easy to paint, but you know, to get it right, it's not that easy. And then it's the first time I've ever really painted lines um before, which you know, I wish if I could go back and do it again, I'd probably do it a little dirtier. Um try to make it too nice, I guess, you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

A little more field expedient.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Yeah, you know, it's funny because you look at a lot of different pictures, they you know, we would have original pictures of when they came off the line and were just freshly painted. Man, you could you could tell there were some differences in paint style from one to the next, you know, and it was like, well, that guy might have been had a little bit too much fun.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Well, there's a there's a Monday airplane and a Friday airplane.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Some of them were like, wow, man, my kid could do that, and then other ones were you know closer to this.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

Yeah. But still, it's uh it's gonna be an amazing opportunity. And yeah, the museum will be open from 10 to 5 as usual. It doesn't mean that that's when the airplanes are gonna fly or be photographed.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Yeah, but actually that would be year. I would say likely not. Um probably, you know, there's there's a lot of moving parts in this right now. So there might be adjustments to schedules to get people in. I don't know yet. I mean, and I'm not speaking out of turn, but yeah, I mean, generally speaking, when we go do the photo flights, you know, they they really like the early morning sun. Yeah, that's the best light. Or the late evening sun. Yeah. And you get that golden, you know, beautiful light, you know, on the side of it.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

So but they're gonna be staying overnight here.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

They'll be here. Yeah, we're gonna have to shift around some stuff and make some room, but they're gonna be here. Um, and then also I think as of right now, the plan is that we're gonna be taking the the back of the B-25 off and we're gonna be using that as the photo ship. So that means that I'll be out getting a fly with these things, which is funny because I actually talked to my dad yesterday. I was like, look, we've never done this before. I said, but when we get done filming, can we drop back and actually fly behind them for a little bit just so you and I can actually see what's going on? Because you know, we had all we did all that documentary series stuff, and all the magic is happening behind it. Like we don't see anything, you know, and all you're hearing on the radio is like, oh my god, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. You know, and it's like, yeah, this is really cool, really cool. But we you know, we don't get to see anything until you get on the ground and you know look at it through a camera lens like everybody else. But well, I think it it would be little enough to be able to just hey man, let's move back and back up and we'll just let them fly and alongside or I want to be behind them. I want to see that three ship on the horizon kind of thing, you know. So it's just as exciting for us as it is for anybody else. I mean, it's such an historic thing, and you know, I mean, for the longest time we only had one flying in the world, and and most people don't even know what it is, you know. I mean, I never really paid attention to the hell diver. I mean it was such an obscure bird, and yeah, and there's none flying. Like I didn't grow up at air shows and seeing a hell diver.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Well, I grew up at air shows and never saw a hell diver.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

That's what I'm saying. I grew up around it and never saw a hell diver. So you just it is never in my lexicon, and then you go and you build one, and now it's like it's one of my favorite birds, you know, to hang around and see, and and the fact that we get to get all three of them and they're all gonna be here for the first time is just an amazing deal.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

This old girl has won me over. Uh really, really has. And Fagan's bird was finished half a year, year before this.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

No, I think they actually finished it about a month before. Well, I should say they didn't finish it, they got it flying about a month before. Um, you know, it was still missing a lot of the rear gun stuff when they took it to Oshkosh, I believe. So, you know, they still they got it going and got it flying and got it and they made it out to Oshkosh and everything, and which is a feat. It's just a phenomenal feat. Anytime you finish one of these restorations, it's just an amazing thing.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

So the fact that they were able to do that, and you know, we were loping a little behind them, but uh you know, we weren't pushing for well to Oshkosh. We were pushing for our air show, yeah, which was you know a month and a half after Oshkosh, so we had that a little bit more time to just kind of get it dialed in. Yeah. But we ended up having an issue with the tailwheel. Um, you know, you're trying to use new old stock, they you have the solid rubber tailwheel.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

Well, because that's a carrier.

SPEAKER_04 10:21

So you're pulling all these brand new looking tailwheels off the shelf that are 1950s brand new. You know, and they and we we live about two miles away from where the air show is here, so when you when you taxi that thing around, it it gives it a lot of heat and they were they were shredding them. So we ended up not flying it for the air that air show. Uh but we have since gotten the tailwheel issue resolved, and we're we're looking forward to this thing.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Yeah, yeah. It's it's gonna be cool. Um as I said, I'm I'm just gonna take up residence out here. I think I might sling a hammock somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

Well, that's gonna feel like us. Yeah, we're gonna be doing that. I mean, essentially it's gonna feel that way because. Those photo shoot type things always are, but and it, you know, it's gonna be a little bit of I don't want to say chaos, but you know, there's gonna be a lot of last uh in the moment thoughts, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

We'll be pulling them out and it'll be like there's gotta be a good idea cutoff.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

Yeah, you know, put them in the you know, just put them out on the out, you know. Oh no, put them over here so we can get Pikes Peak behind them and you know, just all these different ideas. So it's gonna be great. I mean, we're it's just gonna be a buzz.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

I mean Well and you've you've already had the experience of the Coleman shoot. Yeah. Now almost a year ago. Yeah. Isn't that time flies, huh? It does. But so you've you know, you've been pulled through a lot of these grommets before.

SPEAKER_04 12:07

Yeah. No, I mean, you know what to expect. Yeah. You know what to what's coming. I mean, for the most part, in the overall sense of things, you know what's coming. You're just not quite sure how you're gonna get from A to Z. You know, what's gonna happen in between.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Gremlins are gonna be.

SPEAKER_04 12:23

I mean, well, well, let's hope not. Okay, I mean, like you said, we got touch wood. We got, you know, two, three birds, and one is flown a lot, and then the other two are pretty brand new. So, I mean, there's a lot of things that that can throw a wrench in the works.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

I mean, for sure. We've already knocked on wood. We're good.

SPEAKER_04 12:42

But you know, I mean, the thing is is you know, we're we got it, as you can see behind us, we got it in here and we're we're kind of prepping it and making sure that we're ready with ours. Yeah, I'm sure I guarantee Fagan's is doing the same with theirs, and you know, the CAF, you know, they they fly theirs all the time, so they have to keep that thing going.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

Well, and it's probably a little bit easier when the aircraft is flown regularly.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Um yeah, for sure. You know, it's just Yeah, they don't like to be sitting very long. No.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

You know, they they they get temperamental. You know, seals get used to sitting where they're sitting, and then they start to develop flat spots, and you know, oil starts pulling some moisture in from the outside, and you know, there's just a lot of things that you know they like to be run.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

Oil's not gonna pull much moisture in from the Colorado air, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

Yeah, well, I mean it does when it sits in here because we're all we do is run swamp coolers all day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Yeah, because outside there it's it's hot and dry.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

So, what's something about this whole thing that that's got you really excited? I mean different perspective.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Again, I I started out with a mild dislike for the whole breed.

SPEAKER_05 13:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Uh as I I said with Charlie on the very first episode, the Dauntless will always be in my heart for winning Midway. Yeah. Um but and this bird here really turned it around for me. And it when I first came in and saw her sitting there, and I was like, yeah, well, hell diver. And having having seen her fly and and been around her, and and just you know, she is the phoenix. I mean, she's risen from the depths, not the ashes, but risen from the depths. And so just to see her fly again, but I've never seen another hell diver fly.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

And I think um we were talking to uh to one guy whose whose dad had been a back seater and had helped sink the Yamato.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 15:08

And okay, they they did great wonderful things against those battleships. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

Oh, that's a good bird, you know. I mean, it's solid. You know, you talk to Charlie after he flies the thing, and he just he just doesn't understand the reputation, you know. He really loves the airplane, so it's a good airplane to fly. It's faster than I think advertised, you know. And I mean, look at the stance on this thing. I mean, it is a it is a it's a good air stable aircraft.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Well, and and when I was talking to Charlie, and at the very least, I want to corner Charlie, uh for our own nefarious purposes, but he was talking about taking the bird into combat, and he said, you know, you got you got a lot of airplane around you, and you got you got more bombs and you got more guns.

SPEAKER_04 16:02

And you got that HP up front, that horsepower, you know. There's that. The right the 2600, so yeah, I mean that's much better than what the SBD was pushing.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

True, true. But they're I mean, they're just different airplanes, and it's it's ironic that they really came up together, but the SBD didn't, you know, didn't have all those six or eight hundred change orders and oh yeah, about that, or about this, and about well, and I think too though the SBD was kind of pre-war design.

SPEAKER_04 16:38

So I mean they didn't have that rush and that they didn't have the knowledge you know of oh this works, this doesn't work, you know, where this thing is being developed in wartime, and so they know like it's a constantly changing goal line. You know, they're just constantly changing it, like, well, yeah, that might have been okay three years ago, but now we can do this, and we should expect now we gotta have the wings fold.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

The SBD was was on those decks with straight wings, very many of these on an aircraft carrier as is. No. You gotta have those wings that get up out of the way.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Well, and then that change order of, yeah, oh, by the way, we want two of them to fit on an elevator.

SPEAKER_04 17:21

Well, you know, that's the thing, is they thought, you know, that that's born out of the boardroom. You know, that hey, we need to think this way. But the guys on the carrier are gone, that doesn't work.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

I have experience, I have experience with one of those last minute, yeah, it's got to do this on a boat, and it it actually led to a couple of guys getting killed. Yeah. So as I said, the the good idea cutoff line has got to be pretty rigid in a lot of these things. Yeah. Um Yeah, it's just a beautiful plane.

SPEAKER_04 17:52

Like you said, you know, sitting around and looking at this thing every on a daily basis for me is it just I just love it. So yeah, I'm I'm just to have the three of these things come out, you know, and it and it's just another way to honor the story a little bit more that we've had from this airplane, you know, you know, Matt McCauley, those guys, him and his you know, partners back then, you know, picking this thing up and getting it out and the whole story behind it, you know, just to even get it to the point where it could be restored.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Well, and what's the luck of the draw? I mean, there were five other airplanes down there.

SPEAKER_04 18:30

Yeah, and this is the one that gets built.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

Yeah, well, and I mean the other four of the others were were wildcats, I think. Yeah. So if Matt had just went, well, okay, this one, or Jeff, yeah. Then we wouldn't we wouldn't have this amazing airplane.

SPEAKER_04 18:47

And we wouldn't be getting this three ship reunion. Yeah, it wouldn't be any big deal. I mean, it'd be cool to have two of them get together, but three of them, you know, that just that makes something that's just amazing. So, you know, maybe we'll throw a little clip in at the end of this, you know, we'll just pull something from the Matt McCaulay, you know, podcast and let him kind of go through you know what we got here. This is not what she looked like when you first saw her.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Not even remotely. Absolutely not. Um what we found was uh was a vestige of what you see sitting behind us. It was a stripped burnt uh center section, uh absent with the wings past the fold point. That's all right. There was no engine forward of the firewall. Uh-huh. Um, the entire tail area aft of the gunner's position was gone. Uh-huh. No landing gear, no seats, no instruments, a little bit of the pilot's front canopy, and that was it. All the rest of the canopy stuff was gone. There were some incidental parts and pieces um in the cockpit area, and that was about it.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Do you think that a lot of that stuff was uphold as salvage before? I mean, are they gonna set an airplane on fire with a engine that they can scavenge parts from?

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Absolutely. I think that's what uh that's what happened. Uh um the aircraft history card uh tells us that the airplane was stricken in 1945, uh presumably after having had a hard landing. Uh so I often compare that to uh a car insurance company totaling a car. They're essentially saying, hey, this car would cost a lot more money to repair than it's even worth worth. So let's just scrap it. The Navy had their own version of that. Uh so what they did after they deemed this plane um not worth repairing is exactly what you described. They removed the usable components, uh, and then ultimately the empty hulk they use it as a fire training aid. Basically, they would uh uh throw some Avgas on it, uh, set it ablaze, and then they would time their uh base fire training crews uh how long it took them to remove an asbestos dummy from the cockpit um in order to simulate uh a wreck on the tarmac.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

Something that pilot pilots would appreciate. So, based off of that, you know, me being a restoration guy and in the business, I see stuff like that and I see the treasurer. Of course, yeah. How did somebody that you know, a 19-year-old kid at the time see something like that and decide, hey, we're gonna go through the effort to really bring this thing up and do something with it?

SPEAKER_02 21:13

That's a great question. And I had uh some uh friends, dads that were that were car collectors, so I would see them uh going to swap meets or what have you, or f out in barns or whatever in Eastern Washington and coming back with rusted uh parts that didn't look like very much that they were all excited about. So even as as young guys, uh we had the sense that if we put this in the right hands, somebody might be able to do something with it uh toward restoration, whether uh you know, restoring that uh center section itself uh or uh using the burnt parts and pieces to make patterns to make other uh usable pieces for the airplane. Because uh un I had not uh visited your library, but in those days I thought there probably were That there wasn't that much information around for restorers if they needed to make a new part. So I thought, well, if you had even an unusable part from that, you might be able to make a good one, a new one. Exactly how we use it. So that was that was kind of our our motivation. We sort of figured somebody could either use it to maybe put together a static display. And in our wildest dreams, like, dare we let ourselves imagine it ever flying? Nah, that's crazy. That could never happen.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

So it was it mostly that you thought that maybe even find somebody that can actually put this thing in the air, or how much of it was just, hey, we're kids and we're gonna go out and have some fun and try to do something crazy here.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

No, we we I was pretty I wanted it to fly, and at bare minimum, I wanted to see it restored. I sort of looked at it um as we were just a link in a chain. I knew that. I knew what we were. We were we were young guys who were scuba divers, we were gonna get this up. Um there's no way I'm gonna become you guys, an aircraft restorer. That wasn't the direction I had my life planned out. I thought we could bring it up, get it to somebody that knew what they were doing, and then from there they could they could take it. And our little part would be here it is, here you go. Because we have some limited specialized knowledge that allows us more or less mostly on the trailer. Um so we uh we knew all along that somebody we it had to go to somebody that knew what they were doing, whether a museum or a private collector or someone. Um, and we were crazy too. We hadn't scoped the market, there was no internet in those days. You had trade a plane and then some of the you know the aviation fan magazines like Orbirds and Air Classics that I used to read. And you know, so we had a sense of what was out there. As I recall at that time, the only flying hell diver was a Dash 5 operated by a wing of the Confederate Air Force that um, as I recall, had a had a mishap like a year or so later, and for a period there were none flying. So because of the scarcity of the plane, we we had a sense that somebody would would want it. But we never really we even then knew that you know, just out in somebody's garage with dad's machining tools or something, it wasn't gonna happen for us.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

What was your wildest guess at how long you thought it might take somebody to get it back in the air or to static conditions?

SPEAKER_02 24:13

I thought it could take like uh an incredibly long period of time, like five or ten years.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Yeah. And what did it take?

SPEAKER_02 24:19

It well, 41 vote. Yeah, we can say it took 41, but it didn't take Westpac 41. No. Because once the Slatterleys and Westpac got involved, the rate of restoration escalated dramatically. So it's uh it's fun to say it took 41 years, and I like saying that. But in reality, um the the original uh man that we sold it to was a really nice guy, we're still friends today, Mike Ross, and he was an individual uh restorer. Uh started out, he was working as an when he bought it from us, he was an AMP for Northwest Airlines. He was a lot older than us. He must have been 28 or 29 at the time. And he had a wife, he had kids, he had a day job. And so he's out working on the thing on weekends for for years. And one guy with a A and P normal middle class income, you know, it was stretching out a long time. So ultimately, after a number of decades, um, he he came to an agreement with the Slatterleys and you know the rest. Then you guys eventually got involved and it came out here and the magic started going.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

Well, and that's a testament of having somebody like Slattery family that will that will do that investment and and have that pride and want to have these things in the air to be able to put the money forward and then find somebody like our shop or somebody else that can that can really dedicate the time and and do it. That's what you it requires for something like that for sure.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

That you can see some of our earlier efforts. Uh less uh less polished. Williams learned a lot about uh making us look better, and so uh it it those those clips might seem a little quaint. I'll haven't I haven't seen them in a while.

SPEAKER_04 26:00

Well we just put out the Charlie one, and that was okay. Yeah, he's doing pretty well.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Yeah, and and that was that was great to to talk to Charlie, and we're gonna again hopefully uh pin him down at least. Uh you know, Mr. Fagan and whoever is is coming from the calf bird, it would be pretty pleased.

SPEAKER_04 26:21

But yeah, so it's gonna be uh Ed Vesey is gonna be piloting the CAF bird. Uh Ray Fowler is gonna be coming out with the Fagan, and then again, like you know, Charlie Tuna Hainline is gonna be out here flying R. So I mean, really, just just the just from that point of view, the three pilots, you know, the the history behind the Wood It'd be interesting if we got a little cross cockpit.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

Yeah, I don't I don't see that happening.

SPEAKER_04 26:52

There's one of those good ideas that needs to be uh that's that's one of those above the cutoff lawyers and insurance start getting involved and then you know th those ideas go the wayside.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

As they should.

SPEAKER_04 27:02

Yeah, it's just you know, these guys are familiar with the airplanes they fly, and let's just keep it at that, and let's just go out and put on a good good show for the for the lenses and we make sure that we get this thing all documented and and I'm pretty sure that uh we're gonna have the Challenger um publications crew out here as well.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

Oh, the air classics.

SPEAKER_04 27:23

So air classics and everything else. This thing's gonna be very well documented. Um there's a lot of people coming out of the woodwork right now going, hey, I want to be a part of this, I want to be a part of this, and so now we're swatting them down like flies.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Well, and and because it's pretty unlikely that this is gonna happen again anytime soon.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

Yeah, I would say I mean of course you never say never. I mean money talks and and people, you know, once you kind of get something like this out there, maybe there becomes a demand. And you never know. I mean, it you know, some opportunities come up and and things happen. But as of right now, yeah, like I said, that I mean just to get this to happen was you know, moving heaven and earth to get to get a couple of days where everybody could show up in one spot.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Well, and in essence, you guys are putting on a mini air show a month before our big air show.

SPEAKER_04 28:21

Yeah, yeah, and that's the thing, is it it now you just added another, you know, you already kind of planned out how the how it's gonna the run-up to the air show is gonna happen. And then you you throw this giant, you know, I won't I don't want to call it a speed bump because it's an amazing opportunity, but oh yeah, you know, you know, it it just kind of throws something major in the middle of all that, and you but you gotta do it, you know. You gotta just take it on and you'd be like, it's one of those things, you know, you rest when you're dead, kind of things.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Yep, yep, I'll sleep when I'm dead.

SPEAKER_04 28:52

Yeah, I'll sleep when I'm dead. Classic, you just gotta keep pushing and and and the fact that we get to bring this into our community, that they get, you know, our the people that know us get to come out here and see this thing, you know, live if they want to, if they want to come out and see it is it's just a really amazing opportunity. And and we're just very lucky that the people that making this happen, the Ron Fagans, the Bill Clares, the Jim Slatteries, yeah, you know, the CAF, you know, the fact that they're they are doing what they need to do to make this happen is just phenomenal. And you know, if you do come out and you see these any of these people, you know, shake their hand and tell them thank you. Thank you. You know, thank them because it it really is kind of a they're not doing it for that. I can tell you that right now. They're doing this because they all believe in the same thing. Yep. That the history and and the and the memories and and everything else is what is important. We need the heritage and that we need to continue to bring that to light. Yeah. But it doesn't hurt, you know, when when they hear it from the people that are there that, hey, you know, that this is amazing and we really appreciate this.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Well, so roll the dice and come on out if you can. Um be a great plug for a membership because if you had your membership card, it's you just come out every day.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

Just come out every day. Slash that card and you're here. You know, you're good to go. And if you if you're not currently on our social media, just go ahead and get on the museum social media. You can follow me. Um Fagan Fighters too. But I mean, you'll probably get your best up-to-date information coming from the museum website or the museum Facebook. So if there's any new developments, you know, that's where you're probably going to see it first. Um just plan on, you know, it's one of those things you just you just plan on coming out and just hanging out. And it and it's a hurry up, hurry up and wait kind of thing until it happens. And then when it happens, things go.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

But it's a it's a cool place to hang out anyway.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

Yeah, I mean it's not a bad place to be. I'm here all the time.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Well, this is uh this is a great thing. I'm I'm glad you uh Yeah, we're real excited for it.

SPEAKER_04 31:10

We can't wait, you know. And then we also still have oh man, congratulations on your presentation, by the way. That that was amazing. We really enjoyed it, and we got to take you up and and fly the N B25 afterwards.

SPEAKER_03 31:23

Yeah, and uh you guys were probably too busy driving the airplane, but I was standing between the two of you on uh on a couple of those uh occasions.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a real good way to just punctuate your whole presentation, is like throw you in the airplane and let's go.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

Yeah, well, and and uh we'll we'll see if uh see if we have to re-record it. I don't know. We'll we'll see. We had had speaking of gremlins, we had a sound gremlin.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

A little technical difficulties, but it didn't it didn't take away from the presentation.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

So I think well that's very kind of you to say it uh that that was definitely a labor of love, and we had uh the Air Force flight nurses front and center. Yeah. Um those those were some amazing people, and a lot of people came up to me afterwards saying I had no idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:16

So then another fly thing, and it which is happening about the same time as the helldivers is our normal museum. Oh, yeah, fly day fly day, and we're gonna actually have the P51 Mustang coming in from Broomfield Stang. Stang Evil. Yeah, Mark Bingham is bringing down his Mustang, and so that's something that you don't normally get to see here at the museum.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

So and so we're really good about that.

SPEAKER_04 32:38

So thanks again for tuning in. Yeah, and we hope to see you out here all throughout August. And for my partner Rob Gale, for William Stevenson behind the glass, and myself, Scott Claris, stay safe out there.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

Please do