Warplane Takes Vets on Cape Aerial Tour

ERMA – First came the roar of four 1200 horsepower radial engines, so loud, you could not hear yourself think.
Then came the deep vibration that shakes the entire body and fuels anticipation for what was to come. Strapped into the forward crew compartment of the vintage World War II B-24 bomber “Witchcraft,” one can feel the old war bird shaking and straining to go…go…go.
But pilot, Jim Harley, isn’t quite ready to release the restored heavy bomber into the Cape May County skies until he completes the last of his “run up” procedures. And so, we wait at the end of the runway at Cape May County airport until everything is a “go.”
The Wings of Freedom tour of vintage “war birds” came to South Jersey for the Labor Day Weekend in a big way Sept. 4. 
The “fly in” of the B-24 Liberator, B-17 Flying Fortress and the North American B-25 medium bomber and the famous P-51 Mustang represented just a part of the NAS Wildwood Museum’s “Air fest” activities held at the airport until Sept. 7. 
The “Wings of Freedom” portion of the event was sponsored by the Collings Foundation, a non-profit educational organization in Stowe, Mass. “devoted to organizing living history events that allows people to learn more about their heritage,” according to its website. 
The foundation, founded in 1979, barnstorms across the nation with its restored aircraft, attending events such as AirFest to demonstrate history, not just recall it.
The NAS Wildwood Museum, also a not-for-profit educational and historical organization, has much more to offer South Jersey residents and visitors throughout the year. The museum features over 26 historic aircraft, exhibits, memorabilia, plus static and interactive displays that will thrill children and adults alike while educating them about the air station’s history as a dive bomber training facility during World War II that cost 42 airmen their lives during their training tour.
Hangar No. 1 at the airport has been designated as a “Historic Place of National Significance” by the State of New Jersey and the National Registry and serves as the headquarters of the museum.
The foundation also holds community events such as big band concerts, swing dances, veterans’ ceremonies and historical lectures to school children, veterans groups and the general public.
The 89-year-old Cape May resident, retired postmaster, and Second World War veteran Harvey Williams was a Navy radioman who served on a PCE-842 class corvette used as a weather ship in the South Pacific in the later stages of the war.
He had never been near a warplane before; his first experience was coming that day. He recalled that weather forecasting was pretty much ignored by the top brass until a typhoon struck Admiral Halsey’s fleet in late 1944.  
“He lost ships and hundreds of sailors” because he ignored weather forecasts. “After that, the Navy took weather more seriously” he noted. 
He recalled that while on Guam, he first heard of the atomic bomb being dropped when about a hundred ships started blowing their horns to signal the end of the war. “I credit Harry Truman with ending that war” he added with emphasis.
Another veteran of both the Second World War and Korea took his first flight in a warplane, even though he served in the 1st Marine Corps Aviation Wing.
A Villas resident, 88-year-old Marshall Howey served from July 1945, through the Korean War. Although he was not part of flight or ground crew, he served in his ground transportation role, in the Far East, until the war ended.
His eyes lit up as he first approached the B-24 and his grin never left his face throughout the entire flight.  
While at full throttle, and struggling to be set free, the four-engine bomber with a 110-foot wingspan and 290 mph maximum speed was finally ready to defy gravity and take to the air.
Suddenly, we were thrust backward at our crew stations as the pilot released the brakes on the B-24 and began speeding down the airstrip; the open bomb bay doors began to close. 
As the bay doors slid shut, the runway streamed past below the metal ledge that served as the Flight Engineers’ position. 
We immediately executed a slow climbing turn to the right, gaining altitude to about 1,000 feet above the beaches of Wildwood as we began our tour of Cape May County by air. 
Given the OK to move about by the crew, some of us, one at a time, traversed the narrow, 8-inch-wide catwalk that led from the forward crew positions, past the long racks of bomb bays, to the waist gunner positions on each side of the fuselage.
The gale force winds rushing through the open gun ports into the inner fuselage area made navigating the narrow 8-inch passageway between the bomb racks a real balancing act in a moving aircraft; the tight quarters we encountered throughout a bomber of such size was truly surprising.
Picturing crew members, in parachutes for the most part, negotiating up, down and through the aircraft, while fitting themselves into the ball turrets, cockpit, and tail gun positions was unimaginable for anyone even approaching 6 feet in height.
These brave airmen suffered extremes of cold and heat, and flew for hours and hours in cramped crew stations, while focusing on their jobs as airmen while dodging anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighters; and they did it time after time as a matter of routine.
All generations are great in their own way, but that generation proved its mettle in quiet, yet profound ways that we should learn, remember and honor.
When we landed, rolled out and taxied to the tie-down area, veterans Howey ( “that was absolutely fantastic!”) and Williams deplaned with some difficulty, but with dignity, and expressed gratitude for the experience and vowed to return again next year, God willing.
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.