Another mission successfully completed by two (Bob Kendrick, L-4 and Hugh Hunton, L-3) of the three Blunderbirds (Jim Malone had to work, L-2). A desperate phone call by the Mayor of Ida, Louisiana, who had planned a gala reunion of WWII’s 357th Fighter Group, pleading for a fly-over of L-birds after his scheduled P-51 had aborted the day before the event. Pretty neat, substituting L-birds for a P-51! The gathering had dual purposes; first, to honor Ida native and WWII P-51 ace Fletcher Adams who was shot down and killed in May 1944, and secondly, to dedicate a museum for Adams and members of the 357th. The featured speaker was BGen Chuck Yeager. The Shreveport Times had an article on the event in which the Blunderbirds were honorably mentioned. The following is an extract from that article:
“The major setbacks for the day were Gov Bobby Jindal sending his regrets due to tropical storm Bonnie threatening the Gulf Coast, and the break down of a P-51 Mustang scheduled to perform a flyover. Instead, two World War II-vintage Liaison planes flew patterns overhead”. I guess we were part of the “Major Setback”!
Hugh
————————————————————————————————————————-
And George said:
These two aircraft were flown by their respective owners. Bob Kendrick is flying his L4 and Hugh Hunton is flying his L3 Aeronca! A tremendous thanks goes out to each of these memebers for helping in this event!
GC
————————————————————————————————————————
If I heard Mayor Smokie Maddox correctly, he called Hugh and Bob at 1pm and they asked what time to be there. Smokie apologized and told them 2:30 and they said we will be there and at 2:30 on the dot they came around the Ida water tower and saved the day!
Another mission successfully completed by two (Bob Kendrick, L-4 and Hugh Hunton, L-3) of the three Blunderbirds (Jim Malone had to work, L-2). A desperate phone call by the Mayor of Ida, Louisiana, who had planned a gala reunion of WWII’s 357th Fighter Group, pleading for a fly-over of L-birds after his scheduled P-51 had aborted the day before the event. Pretty neat, substituting L-birds for a P-51! The gathering had dual purposes; first, to honor Ida native and WWII P-51 ace Fletcher Adams who was shot down and killed in May 1944, and secondly, to dedicate a museum for Adams and members of the 357th. The featured speaker was BGen Chuck Yeager. The Shreveport Times had an article on the event in which the Blunderbirds were honorably mentioned. The following is an extract from that article:
“The major setbacks for the day were Gov Bobby Jindal sending his regrets due to tropical storm Bonnie threatening the Gulf Coast, and the break down of a P-51 Mustang scheduled to perform a flyover. Instead, two World War II-vintage Liaison planes flew patterns overhead”. I guess we were part of the “Major Setback”!
Hugh
————————————————————————————————————————-
And George said:
These two aircraft were flown by their respective owners. Bob Kendrick is flying his L4 and Hugh Hunton is flying his L3 Aeronca! A tremendous thanks goes out to each of these memebers for helping in this event!
GC
————————————————————————————————————————
If I heard Mayor Smokie Maddox correctly, he called Hugh and Bob at 1pm and they asked what time to be there. Smokie apologized and told them 2:30 and they said we will be there and at 2:30 on the dot they came around the Ida water tower and saved the day!
M H
Read the story in the times here :
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20100725/NEWS01/7250334/1060