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OUR PREVIOUS SHOWS

UNITED STATES MILITARY

SEYMOUR JOHNSON AFB, NC x 1

DAVIS MONTHAN AFB, AZ x 3

HOLLOMAN AFB, NM x 3

EDWARDS AFB, CA x 1

FAIRCHILD AFB, UT x 4

NELLIS AFB, NV x 3

SHAW AFB, SC x 1

HILL AFB, UT x 4

LUKE AFB, AZ x 2

EGLIN AFB, FL x 1

MCAS CHERRY POINT, NC x 1

MCAS MIRAMAR, CA x 7

MCAS YUMA, AZ x 6

NAF EL CENTRO, CA x 2

CIVILIAN AIR SHOWS

EAA COPPERSTATE, AZ x 1

EAA ARLINGTON, WA x 2

CASA GRANDE, AZ x 6

SANTA MARIA, CA x 2

LAKE TAHOE, CA x 2

WENDOVER, UT x 6

SUN N FUN, FL x 4

PRESCOTT, AZ x 4

WILLIAMS, AZ x 3

KINGMAN, AZ x 2

RAMONA, CA x 3

PAYSON, AZ x 2

SEDONA, AZ x 5

HEBER, UT x 4

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VECTOR WARBIRDS MEMORIAL WALL

In Memory of Michael E. ‘Mike’ Corradi 1949-2004

Mike Corradi

Mike is shown here flying our Nanchang Haiyan C. He was gracious enough to flight test the aircraft for its FAA aerobatic certification flights in June 2004. Sadly, Mike, along with friend and colleague Robert ‘Swig’ Sweginnis, who was flying a second aircraft, were killed in August 2004 while flying two-ship formation aerobatics in Super Decathlon aircraft near Prescott. Mike flew the General Dynamics swing wing FB-111 ‘Aardvark’ while serving in the USAF. He retired as a Major.

Mike was our friend. Godspeed Major Corradi.

In Memory of Captain Donald Morris, USAF (Ret.)

donmorris3

Don flew 554 combat missions in the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom during the Vietnam War. He was awarded 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 37 Air Medals. Don was proud to be an 8th Tactical Fighter Squadron ‘Black Sheep’ and a ‘River Rat’. After retiring from the Air Force, Don had a distinguished 26-year-long career as a Southwest Airlines pilot. Don was killed Oct. 18, 2006 over Arizona as a passenger/videographer aboard a Piper Cheyenne brought down by jet wash from the MiG-21 being photographed.

Don was our friend. Godspeed Captain Morris.

In Memory of Captain Frank W. Mott, USMC (Ret.)

Frank Mott

Vietnam Conflict Battlefield Promotion from Sergeant to Captain

Gone West 1942-2008

The Man We Entrusted With Our Lives
You Made Us Laugh, You Taught Us Much
Our Master Parachute Rigger
Aviator

Happy Landings Captain Mott

117,465 Americans lost their lives in World War One, here below is our memorial to just one:

Tucked away on a narrow street in the heart of Chateauroux, France is a small cemetery devoted mostly to what I am sure are the dearly departed of the city. It is an old cemetery filled with old moss covered headstones with most of its inhabitants dating well back to the 18^th century. As I walked carefully through the hundreds, if not thousands, of graying monuments I saw in the distance a well manicured and sizable plot of seemingly identical markers in neat rows. Arriving there I recognized it was a war plot. It was from the Great War, the war that would end all wars. I walked through the carefully raked golden brown gravel and noticed the small French flag affixed to each marker. As I slowly looked around all I could see were the colors of the French. Pondering the meaning of it all, the carnage, the loss, the weeping of those loved, I looked farther and found the same colors, but not those of our brother French, but of ours. “A single Old Glory in the midst of fallen comrades at arms,” I wondered, as I walked towards him. This is what I found:

Raymond H. Runner
29^th Aero Squadron
'A Friend of France'
11/05/1917

Who was Raymond Runner? Why had he come to France to fight and die so far from his home and loved ones? So begins my journey. But you may ask, why did I pick this man, why him among thousands of others. Well because I was born in Chateauroux and he lay not with his countrymen but with his French brothers and in a way, mine. Was I among the few Americans to visit this obscure place, to find him here? Who would remember Raymond Runner if not I? I decided to adopt him and keep his memory alive, and in doing so keep our other fallen alive in our memories. My father once told me if we remember them they will never die. So I will, and maybe now so will you.

Pvt. Raymond H. Runner was killed at the 3^rd Aviation Instruction Center near Paudy, France, which was, at the time, the largest aerodrome in the world. Was he in pilot training? A gunner? A mechanic? These things I will try to find out. One thing is for sure, he was among friends; the likes of Mitchell, Luke and Rickenbacker had flown here.

Our latest investigation has uncovered this information kindly provided by Judith in Owensboro, Kentucky. She is descendant from a Runner. It is she that puts a face to our countryman. We thank you Judith.

raymond_h_runner

So now we know; this son of America was just 32 years young and in the Army just shy of eight months when he was killed. Now he lays in beautiful Chateauroux where warm rain falls upon a golden brown earth. In the sunshine an old French gentleman wearing a straw hat carefully tends our sleeping countryman, just as sons of France have continued to do for over 91 years. He kneels and lays a bright bouquet of red poppies against the etched polished stone and says to himself;

“A Friend of France”

“Some as peaceful as rocked by a mothers hand,
Are lying asleep in a foreign land,
Where the long white rows of crosses stand.

And o’er fallen heads that are lying low,
Where none but God and the angels know,
Where wheat shall spring and the poppies glow.”

P.R. Lostutter, Taylorsville, Indiana 1921

3rd AVIATION INSTRUCTION
CENTER MEMORIAL, ISSOUDUN, FRANCE

It reads:

IN
MEMORY
OF
THOSE
WHO HAVE
GIVEN
THEIR LIVES
FOR THE
CAUSE
1917-1918-1919
THIRD AVIATION
INSTRUCTION
CENTER
AMERICAN
EXPEDITIONARY
FORCES

VECTOR WARBIRDS USA WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE FOR THEIR GENEROUS DONATIONS:

GARY BUNN
BEN KITELEY
JOHN BLIZZARD
TREVOR STRAND

Billy Friedman

It was just another day working on the four Nanchangs that had arrived from China. I had them all unloaded from the shipping container right there on the North Ramp at the Prescott airport and that’s where we planned to get them ready to sell. I had my huge Snap-On roll away tool box strapped down to my flatbed trailer and brought it to the airport everyday so we could have any tool we needed at hand.

I had just come in the Ruger airport entrance and started my left turn down the ramp when I saw something in the rear view mirror. It was the tool box tipping over off the right side of the trailer. I hit the brakes but it was too late. 2000 pounds of tools and box was upside down and scattered across the ramp. **** I yelled.

By the time I got out cussing and started surveying the carnage, Billy Friedman, a casual friend had already jumped out of his truck and was picking up wrenches and pliers. Within minutes, without as much as a word, we had all the tools piled on the trailer and then the two of us bared down on the upended tool box and with every fiber of our being tipped it back up and onto the trailer, all 1000 + pounds of it! Billy and I just smiled at each other, knowing we had just done a mans job together. We looked at the end of the tie down hook that had held the box to the trailer, it was broken off.

I thanked him, my anger of a smashed 4000 dollar Snap- On tool box gone, he said ‘anytime’. That box is in my garage today, battle scars and all, still doing its job, just like we did. Billy has flown west, but his strength lives on in that box and in my memory of him. Thanks Billy, I couldn’t have done it without you.

Godspeed my friend!