Curse you, Red Baron!

Finish that morning coffee & get out to Barnstorming Days

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

Barnstorming Days comes to Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, 9913 Willow View Road, Fishers, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, allowing you to climb in the copilot’s seat and take to the skies.

Thanks to a sponsorship from Federal Express, select veterans get to fly for free this year at Commemorative Air Force (CAF) barnstorming events. Friday morning, Publisher Stu Clampitt and Reporter Photographer Bill Miller spoke with three of those vets and had the opportunity to fly in two of the very aircraft used to train World War II pilots.

Air Force Veteran Walt Sherman served his country for 24 years, over which time he was stationed in Arizona, California, England, Okinawa, and Utapao, Thailand.

While the CAF Steerman biplane was not on the runway Friday morning, Sherman has a personal history with that model.

“My dad owned a Steerman after the war. He flew it all over the place down in Southern California,” Sherman told The Reporter. “I was in the hospital because I was only four pounds, and back then they didn’t have insurance. So to get me out of the hospital, he had to sell his airplane.”

Sherman’s father passed away in 1996, and Sherman never had the opportunity to fly in a plane of the same model as the one his father once owned. The Steerman in the hangar Friday morning was not a CAF plane. The one pictured in today’s edition belongs to Tom Wood Aviation.

Sherman will finally get the chance to fly in a Steerman this summer at the Indianapolis Executive Airport thanks to the CAF, and The Reporter will be there to document that personal milestone.

Reporter photo by Bill Miller

Navy Veteran Joe Lahr was also at Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport for a FedEx-sponsored CAF flight on Friday morning.

“Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer of the Line in the world’s second largest nuclear Navy, standing out on the cutting edge of the sword of freedom, a veritable bulwark to stem the godless hordes of communism,” Lahr said by way of introduction. “I got so tired!”

Lahr served his country for 23 years.

“I started in San Diego,” Lahr said. “I spent almost my entire career in the Far East by choice. Japan, Korea, two years as an advisor in Vietnam, Philippines, four different ships – and in the best of all possible worlds, I’d still be doing it. I picked up some souvenirs: a wife and four kids. I’m not sure where the kids came from, but they just kept cropping up and that’s one of the reasons I stayed overseas.”

Reporter photo by Bill Miller

Reporter photo by Bill Miller

During his service, the Navy would not send anyone to be stationed overseas with more than three children.

“But as long as I was already over there, I could stay,” Lahr said. “I had the best job ever.  I came off five years on an Air Force base, which I gotta admit was great, and went to the 7th Fleet flagship as a division officer.”

Lahr was medevaced back to the States for heart surgery, and then he could not go back overseas.

“At that time, Bethesda was the only place doing the heart surgery,” Lahr said. “So naturally, if I came back, the kids and wife had to come back, and I could never take them with me again. So I went ahead and retired. But it was a great life. I loved every – no, I can’t say I loved every minute of it – but yes, it was all satisfying. I’ve flown in a few Air Force planes as a passenger, of course, but nothing like what I’m gonna see today, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Air Force Veteran Carl Holl served for 20 years.

“The first few years were in medical school,” Holl said. “And then I was a flight surgeon in England, in Lake and Heath. I delivered babies in Mildenhall. And I was also a Bruntingthorpe, which nobody’s heard of. It was an RB-66 place, like Alkenberry was. So that was my flying part. But I was also at UCLA for a radiology residency and was in San Antonio and spent most of the Vietnam War in Germany. And then ending my career in Biloxi.”

Reporter photo by Bill Miller

Reporter photo by Bill Miller

When asked how he heard about the CAF event, Holl said, “It might’ve been in your newspaper.”

That answer elicited a round of laughter from everyone present, and this writer must thank you not only for your service to our great country, but also for that moment of levity, sir.

The only barnstorming photo in today’s edition not taken by Bill Miller is this picture of Bill Miller. (Reporter photo by Stu Clampitt)

If you’d like to see the WWII aircraft the CAF has brought to Hamilton County for Barnstorming Days, you can do so at Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport, 9913 Willow View Road, Fishers, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. If you’re bold enough to take a flight, please know that every dollar of the cost goes to aircraft maintenance and organizing events like this one.

CAF is a 100 percent volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Learn more online at indianawingcaf.org/indianapolis-in.html.

Reporter photos by Bill Miller