FOND DU LAC – Attendees may flock to Oshkosh for AirVenture every year, but EAA shares a little bit of the fun with Fond du Lac.
The Fond du Lac Skyport coordinates with EAA and is host to aircraft parking, staging, camping and refueling during AirVenture, as well as shuttle services to Oshkosh.
It’s also where Commemorative Air Force Airbase Georgia offers Warbird rides, giving individuals a chance to fly in a historic World War II airplane.
Commemorative Air Force collects and preserves combat aircraft, keeping them in flying condition to hold the memory of American military aviation heritage. This fulfills an effort that started in the late 1950s, when the founders realized these planes weren’t being taken care of very well, according to Operations Officer John Currenti.
CAF’s volunteer-run Airbase Georgia operates rare WWII aircraft as a “flying museum,” according to its website, giving rides and performing demonstrations.
“We’re here to tell a story, and it’s a story about the greatest generation,” Currenti said.
He added that with many WWII veterans gone, and more passing away every day, their stories need to be told for people to understand why this country is what it is today.
Warbirds at the Fond du Lac Skyport available for rides were the P-51 Mustang called “Red Nose,” the Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber, an LT-6 Mosquito and a T-34 Mentor. Additionally, Airbase Georgia brought a rare FG-1D Corsair fighter to the grounds at EAA.
Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless was crucial in Pacific battles
This year, the Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless dive bomber caught a little extra attention as a result of a local connection with Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt’s family.
Currenti said in the 30 years he’s been offering rides, he’s watched passengers progress from WWII veterans to their children to their grandchildren, including Waldschmidt.
Waldschmidt’s grandfather was Cpl. Thomas Ford, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during WWII, starting in the summer of 1941. He’d sat in the back seat of a Dauntless similar to the one Airbase Georgia has, manning the radio and gun.
“(He had) a lot of guts because the guy’s sitting backwards most of the time,” Currenti said.
The Douglas SBD Dauntless was in production from 1940 to 1944, designed as a carrier-based scout and dive bomber, according to the CAF Airbase Georgia Facebook page. It had a hefty reputation, especially for its role in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in 1942. While SBD stood for “Scout Bomber Douglas,” it earned the nickname “Slow But Deadly.”
Ford didn’t talk about his experiences much with family, until Waldschmidt interviewed him for a college assignment in 1998, when he recalled his time rebuilding the base at Pearl Harbor, fighting at Midway Island and island-hopping on the Pacific Rim.
“His job was to defend his aircraft and other aircraft in the pattern from enemy planes,” Waldschmidt wrote in 1998. “He said he lost count on the number of planes he shot down after the first day of action.”
Ford died not long after Waldschmidt wrote that paper, so his memories live on in what he told his grandson and others.
Sheriff steps into his grandfather’s shoes on the warbird
Waldschmidt was on duty when he got to talking with Currenti members of Airbase Georgia during AirVenture 2024 about the planes and his grandfather’s role in the war.
Pilot Rob Haley took Waldschmidt on a ride in the Dauntless July 22, and as Haley explained the maneuvers, Waldschmidt said he pictured himself in the role of his grandfather, who would have been looking out for enemy planes from his spot in the back seat.
“There’s only a couple of these aircraft still flying in the world today, and with grandpa and the connection to family, I wanted the opportunity someday to be able to fly in this plane and actually see and feel and smell and hear everything he experienced while stationed out at Midway,” he said.
Waldschmidt encouraged younger adults to get to know the veterans around them and hear their stories as a way to “remember where we came from.” He said we wouldn’t be here today, able to fly in these aircrafts, if we didn’t have a free country thanks to the men who fought and the women who supported them in the wars.
He added, “It’s sometimes easy to get caught up in the chaos of today’s society, but (this) is a very important piece of history.”
Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at dlemke@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: What goes on in Fond du Lac during AirVenture? Warbird rides include sheriff’s flight to honor his grandfather.
Reporting by Daphne Lemke, Fond du Lac Reporter / Fond du Lac Reporter
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