Thunderbolt

There was a story in Newsday yesterday that said the two aviation museums on Long Island were having a special weekend in honor of Veteran's Day, and there were several airplanes at each museum that you could go to and sit in the cockipit. One was this Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, built right here on Long Island back in the time of WWII. This was something that I couldn't pass up. So off I went to Republic Airport and the American Airpower Museum. The P-47 was one of the most rugged and powerful single engine fighters of the Second World War. This one is still flown. Hard to explain why it mattered to me to sit in the cockpit and try and imagine the lives of the young pilots who risked their lives against the enemy in an aircraft like this. As much as I have read, it is still just unimaginable for me to understand what they went through. I salute them all on Veteran's Day.