Aces among us
Vets keep World War II history alive at Camarillo Air Show
By Bill Lascher 08/23/2007
“We’re a diminishing breed,” Leonard Zerlin said. “There aren’t many World War II veterans around.”
Zerlin, a tail gunner in a B-26 bomber during 36 missions over France and Germany, was credited with 2.5 victories during the war and awarded the Silver Star as an enlisted man. Milling about in the back of a press conference previewing the 2007 Camarillo Air Show — which took place Aug. 18 and 19 at the Camarillo Airport — Zerlin proudly introduced other veterans attending the event.
“Each one has a story to tell,” Zerlin said.
For the past 12 years, Zerlin and other veterans have gathered at the show — hosted by a local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association — to share stories about their experience as pilots, gunners and aircraft crews during the war. Against the backdrop of aerobatic helicopters, roaring jets and barnstorming pilots, the ever-dwindling group passed their tales on to younger generations that appear more and more ignorant about the world’s most devastating and, arguably, most pivotal conflict.
“There isn’t any question in my mind that most people don’t have any real idea of what happened then,” said Art Fiedler, a P-51 Mustang pilot who was based in Italy from June 1944 to February 1945. Now a resident of Oxnard Shores, Fiedler has eight confirmed victories and one probable (pilots were required to document a number of criteria in order to claim a victory; Fiedler had to return to bombers he was escorting before he could confirm the latter case). He also flew more than 1,000 sorties in Vietnam
“I flew all the way from Greece to Poland and over all the countries in between,” he said.
At an age when today kids are often still under their parents’ wings or just starting down their own path, Fiedler had an entire career in the U.S. Army Air Force. Joining the service at 18, he earned his wings at 19. By 20 he was an ace, and by 21 he had left the air force.
“A lot happened in those days,” he said.
So much happened that more than one of Fiedler’s fellow pilots has written about their experience in the war.
Hal Wilder, a Camarillo resident, has gone a step further. Wilder, a B-24 copilot who came to Italy in December 1944 and completed 17 missions, wrote his Grandfather Stories and Grandfather Stories II collections to memorialize his experience. But he has found telling the stories 60 years later has stimulated his memory and improved his mental capacities.
“I have a new career,” he said.
Wilder now leads sessions at the Brain Injury Center at Ventura College to help others recapture their memory through the process of journaling and keeping memories.
“I consider myself writing the source material [for future historians],” he said.
Even as Wilder spoke, it is unclear whether many attending the air show even knew the Camarillo Airport’s history. Built in 1942, the airport operated as Oxnard Air Force Base from 1951 until 1970.
The show, however, wasn’t only a chance for the public to meet veterans of the war. It was also an opportunity to see the aircraft these pilots flew in person, or in the air. With a World War II aviation museum, Camarillo Airport offers a chance year round to see some of the war’s most prominent aircraft, including one of only three flyable Japanese Zero fighters left in the world. The show itself drew others kept elsewhere, including a C-53D Skytrooper used to transport paratroopers and gliders during the D-Day invasion and other battles.
“I had a romance with every airplane I ever flew,” said Starr Thompson, a Ventura County resident who flew a similar plane, the C-47, on troop support missions in the Panama Canal zone.
Reporters, veterans and other pilots had a chance to ride in the C-53D two days before the event.
Although it would be impossible to understand what it felt like to be packed in the plane preparing to jump into battle, for a brief moment, as the smoke of the Zaca fire rose over the hills and shadowed the coastline below, the rumble of two giant propellers brought the riders toward a glimpse of history and a taste of Thompson’s romance.
“We were all kids, but we grew up pretty fast and we kind of missed our childhood,” Thompson said. “I’m trying to make up for that now.”
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