National WWII Aviation Museum in Colorado Springs.

SGT Hector Rojas, AIGA, SHA — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:48:38 -0400

Inspired by SFC Mark Merino post, here are some of our trip to the National WWII Aviation Museum last weekend.

These are mostly of their restoration area, where they take aircraft that have been in the south pacific jungles for decades and turn them into flyable aircraft.

The B-25 you see took part on the Doolittle Raid over Japan, part of history right there!

.

Response by LTC Stephen C. made Mar 31 at 2015 1:50 PM

LTC Stephen C. — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:50:45 -0400

Very nice, SGT Hector Rojas, AIGA, SHA!

Response by PO3 Steven Sherrill made Mar 31 at 2015 2:41 PM

PO3 Steven Sherrill — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:41:59 -0400

This is awesome, I will be visiting my parents in Colorado Springs this winter so I will add this to the list of things to do.

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Mar 31 at 2015 2:45 PM

SFC Mark Merino — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:45:58 -0400

Where in the Springs was that? I missed out on seeing it when I lived there.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 31 at 2015 6:17 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:17:51 -0400

This is the plane that my cousin flew in WWII. Called the Unadilla Killa, where Major Kline flew. Major Russell H. Kline. '

Markings Applied: Unadilla Killa
Painted at USAAF s/n 42-28790 of the 355th Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group (the Pugnacious Pups), 9th Air Force. The plane was named after the hometown (Unadilla NY) of its pilot Lt. Russell H. Kline and was based at Rosieres-en-Haye Air Base in France. Lt. Kline was credited with 1 kill over an FW-190 on 18 December 1944.

http://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=25617

He served in '44 and in Korea and Vietnam.

Aerial Visuals - Airframe Dossier - Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, s/n 127 FAPe, c/n 399-55924, c/r...

This Aerial Visuals page provides airframe history details of a specific airframe from the airframe database.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 5 at 2015 6:11 PM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 18:11:55 -0400

Nose art is the bomb! ;)

Response by LTC James McElreath made Jul 16 at 2018 1:51 PM

LTC James McElreath — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 13:51:39 -0400

I really do like the collections each of these museum's have in their collection. But there are so many private museum that struggle each year to continue to exist. Would it not be better that we had national collections, thus making it easier for the masses to see the items vs a handful. It would appear that by doing so, that the historical significance would be so much greater told. Each state has their own museum's, as well as private?/public. Many of these have smaller but important finds that if placed in amongst, other pieces of relevance might help to understand that part of history.