"I figure if I donate it, it will last way longer than it would otherwise," he told veterans. "The ones I fly don't last very long."
Whittier said he spent approximately 100 hours preparing the model to hang in the museum.
The model was built from scratch from fabricated wooden and fiberglass parts by following a blue print, he said. Purchasing a similar model would cost at least $1,000, he said.
|
|
The B-25 Mitchell was the plane used in the famous Doolittle Raid in April 1942, in which a group of more than 70 United States Army Air Force pilots and crewman, led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, flew 16 of the planes from the U.S.S. Hornet to bomb Tokyo, exacting the country's first revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Doolittle Raid has been depicted in films like "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" and the more recent "Pearl Harbor."
"If they hadn't done anything else with the B-25, the bombing of Tokyo meant a great deal to this country," said retired Air Force pilot Johnny Perkins, who once flew a surviving B-25 in the late 1960s. "People have forgotten, but we were down. We were retreating in the Pacific ... we hadn't won anything in a long time. Pulling off this raid was a great morale boost to the country."
Perkins said he had the thrill of flying the B-25 Mitchell, named after Gen. Billy Mitchell - the father of the Air Force - approximately 10 times while stationed in Wyoming in the late 1960s. Perkins said he and other Air Force pilots borrowed the aircraft from the Wyoming Air National Guard and flew it around the state in order to meet hourly requirements for flight pay.
"Our Connies (Lockheed Constellation) were grounded, and we didn't have a plane to fly for our flight pay," Perkins said. "We borrowed it from the guard bureau and we flew it a lot - four hours for 50-60 pilots, that was a lot of flying. The B-25 was easy to fly. You could turn away, look the other way, and the plane was in the same place when you went back."
Former state Rep. Dr. Jim Barnett also took one turn at the controls of a B-25 many years ago while serving as a U.S. Navy flight surgeon. He was working with the Air Force, he said, and had a chance to accompany Air Force pilots in a series of flights in the historic war bird.
"It's a tremendous machine," Barnett said. "It was a great airplane, no doubt about it. It was a very stable airplane. It was well manufactured, well engineered and had all the power it needed."
Whittier said he first selected the B-25 as a project because he was inspired by movies and books from his childhood, mostly "30 Seconds Over Tokyo." Donating the model airplane to the museum makes it even more significant, he said.
"It's a way for me to honor the people who allowed us to be here today doing what we're doing," Whittier said. "We tend to forget the sacrifice so many people made to give us what we have."
Museum Chairman Paul Jackson, Sr., said the model B-25 brings another personal touch to the small museum.
"We may not be the biggest museum in the state, but we're the most personal," he said. "Some of our pilots were involved in that particular plane."
Jackson said he would love nothing more than for his veterans to have the opportunity to explain the B-25 to Lincoln County's school children. The museum's veterans' biggest concern, he said, is that so few history teachers bring their students to the museum for a tour.
"We regret the fact there's not any more interest from the schools," Jackson said. "They can learn from this model - that it was one of the major bombers used in World War II in both Europe and the Pacific. I think it's a big asset to the museum, and Greg did a good job on it."
Interested people may see the model B-25 - and the rest of the Military Memorial Museum - every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Any classes or groups seeking more information on the museum may contact Jackson at 601-833-3227.
