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P-38 HARDSTAND -- John Stanaway
I just got back from the GATHERING OF MUSTANGS & LEGENDS air
show at Rickenbacker Airport in Columbus with a good dose of Mustang fever. Just
watching those North American thoroughbreds twisting above our heads with their
snarling Merlin engines was enough to keep silent whenever some P-51 maniac-made-overzealous comments about the sleek little speedster. No wonder they make such
superlative claims about the thing. I, for one, was delighted to see replicas of
Robin Olds’s SCAT VII or John Voll’s AMERICAN BEAUTY. The blue-nosed visage of
Preddy or Whisner-decorated 352nd Fighter Group P-51s moved even this old
Lockheed curmudgeon.
The rest of the show was not so satisfying, however. Organization was
reminiscent of the Katrina relief operation with interminable trekking from the
parking area, and no order at all in directing the masses of the public to
either displays or vendor areas. I was happy to find the Avro Lancaster amid
hordes of bodies that practically buried it in human flesh. The B-17s were
there, as were the B-25s, P-47s and P-40s hidden piteously in a corner of the
field. GLACIER GIRL there in all her restored P-38F glory, and next to her was a
P-38L adorned inappropriately in the colors of 80th Fighter Squadron luminary
Norb Ruff’s P-38G. A P-63 Kingcobra was parked nearby, although it was not in
either French or Russian markings, but curiously in mid-war American olive drab.
Perhaps the most disappointing feature of the entire trip was the selection of
P-51 books that we found in the vendor area. There are always a number of new
books on the Mustang available, but the only one featured was an ancient title
that has been relegated to the non-too-useful category years ago. (Why, oh why,
couldn’t somebody have had the presence of mind to display
still creditable
titles by Bill Hess or our late comrade,
Jeff Ethell. Actually, I was probably
miffed most of all that none of my titles were in view; that fact alone shows
lack of foresight on the part of the gathering planners.) [EDITORIAL COMMENT:
This made me laugh out loud when I read it, and I have to agree with John. If
you’d like to pick up a copy of his excellent book on the subject, you can
order
it below.]
Anyway, this old airplane nut was happy enough to see aerobatics by P-51s, AT-6s
and venerable old PT-17 Kaydets. This was advertised as the last such gathering,
but response seemed vigorous enough to encourage another go. Could we hope to
see a gathering of, say, a dozen P-38s with additional displays of Corsairs,
Spitfires, Wildcats, Hurricanes, Hampdens, Defiants, Wirraways . . .
For
those of you who'd like to pick up the overlooked copy of John's excellent book
on the Mustang Aces of the Pacific and CBI, you can
get your copy here.
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