COLUMBUS, Ohio - James Denman was one of the first to arrive at Ohio's Rickenbacker International Airport for the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends, a four-day air show hosted in conjunction with Air Force Heritage Week held Sept. 27-30.
Denman set up his chair six hours before the first plane took off. "I just want to make sure I hear their engines as they take off; I've really missed that sound," Denman said. With the roar of those engines came a flood of memories.
Under the wing of a P-51 Mustang, Denman's mind wandered to his wife, old friends, and a life as a P-51 mechanic in the U.S. Air Force. Time has taken all of them away from the 85-year-old retired master sergeant, but at the air show he smiled through a heavy tear.
"The P-51 was the first plane I ever worked on, and this weekend is bringing back everything. It's overwhelming; I don't know what else to say," said Denman, as he used a metal folding chair as a cane and walked slowly to the show's grandstand Thursday morning.
Rickenbacker International Airport, now home to both civilian and Ohio Air National Guard aircraft, once was an active-duty Army air base where Denman worked for 28 years as a mechanic on the P-51, the legendary long-range fighter that escorted bombers to their targets during World War II and helped the Allies gain air superiority.
He joined more than 250,000 spectators who came from around the world to the quaint central Ohio village of Obetz over the weekend to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Air Force in an air show that was promised as a "once in a lifetime aerial celebration."
Under the blue skies that held out for the long weekend, 10-year-old Oliver Anderson, a self-proclaimed air show connoisseur, said the Gathering soared well above its hype.
"I've been to six air shows now, and this is by far the best," said Anderson, who flew from Illinois with his dad to see the show. "It's just so much bigger than anything I've ever seen before."
There were 82 Mustangs, and a variety of other new and old war birds both on display and demonstrated. Static displays and aerial performances included Air Force bombers, fighters, refuelers and cargo aircraft.
Two-year-old Zach Ertel of the Columbus area said he really liked the "blue one," and pointed to a row of more than 50 planes in front of him; many of them blue.
"If it's a plane, it's his favorite," his father Marty said.
The show celebrated both the heritage of the older war planes and the new fighters with daily flyovers of F-22s and F-16s soaring, wing-tip to wing-tip, with P-51s.
Old Stories
The crowd was just as diverse as the aircraft.
Among a group of elementary school kids with grandparents and teenagers with funnel cakes, were more than 50 legendary Mustang war pilots who gave speeches and autographs throughout the weekend, including Roscoe C. Brown Jr.
Brown called the event, which was hosted next door to the Air National Guard's 121st Air Refueling Wing, "a real high point" in his life.
Rickenbacker used to be called Lockbourne Army Air Base. The once active-duty Air Force base was home to the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black military unit in the United States who garnered national attention and awards for their impressive combat record in World War II. Brown was their commander.
"This is a very bittersweet time for a lot of us," he said. "Here we are forced to think about all the people we lost, but at the same time we're also very proud to have played a role in making this country the way it is today. I told my son this morning: the world has really changed."
Brown said he enjoyed reflecting with old pilots and friends, watching flights and sharing stories over the weekend. "And most of (the stories) were true," he joked.
Next to him, retired P-51 pilot Bob "Punchy" Powell said "some people call us heroes, or legends, but we don't consider ourselves as heroes of any kind. We were just kids ... who did what they had to do. I looked up legend in the dictionary and it just means old."
Jeff Michael, 66, never served in the military but said people like Brown and Powell have his heart.
For Michael, it was simply his love for flying that brought him and his P-51 named "Obsession" to the air show from Florida.
"I'm like a kid in the candy store here, I can't get enough of it," he said after putting some of his belongings in Obsession's cockpit so he could walk around.
He bought the plane for $300,000 in 1986. Someone offered him $1.2 million for it Saturday.
"It's my life though: I don't own Obsession, it owns me," he said. "The plane actually didn't even have a name when I first bought it, but I kept having to fix things and so eventually my wife told me, 'You're obsessed with that thing.' And then it did (have a name)."
Don Brindle, 73, took a picture of the Mustang and said it reminded him of being a kid.
"So many things I forgot and haven't thought about in years, they are all just flooding back right now," said Brindle, who grew up in Erie, Pa. "Like newsreel movies, when I was a kid. I loved to watch the war flicks, especially."
"I didn't know that," his wife Joyce said.
Brindle has never owned a plane, but grew up two blocks from an airfield where P-51s used to land during World War II.
"There is nothing more nostalgic than the sound of those engines. I was between 6 and 10 during the war," Brindle said. "I was at that impressionable age, and I would sneak down every week to watch these planes from the fence line. Man, I almost forgot about that."
And then there was Marvin Richardson and his son David who flew in from Dallas and San Diego, respectively. Minutes before the Thunderbirds took-off for their daily demonstration, the Richardsons perused a booth selling model airplanes.
"We reunited just for this," David said. "I grew up in San Diego, and with all the air bases we have there, you just grow up with a love for planes. We will be out here until they kick us out Sunday."
Marvin said that "every third person" on his plane into Columbus from Dallas was a person coming to see this air show. "You just can't pass something like this up," he said.
The Thunderbirds' show was the reason a father and daughter decided to scope out the event.
On her dad's shoulders, 6-year-old Erika Thomas matched the flight of the Thunderbirds with her model P-51 airplane. Her favorite maneuver was the "loop-de-loop," she said.
"My love for planes came from my father," Mark Thomas, Erika's dad, said.
"But I have two girls, so their interest is a little iffy."
A model plane in each hand, Erika crossed her arms over her red polka dotted shirt and frowned.
"At least I thought it was iffy," he said.
New beginnings
About 72 recruits gave their oath of enlistment to the U.S. Air Force on Saturday, just prior to the Thunderbirds show. The enlistment was one of the largest this year.
"I'm excited, but as his mother, I'm really nervous too," said Liz Blackstone, whose 17-year-old son, Jacob, was part of the group.
Jacob hopes to get a position in security forces for the Air Force after boot camp. He is still a senior in high school.
"He's just so young," Blackstone said. "But it feels like the right thing, and I am beyond proud of him. He's been saying for years that he wanted to join, though, so I can't say I'm surprised."
Six recruits also joined the 121st ARW. With an Air National Guard gift bag in hand, Layton Ackley wished he was one of them.
"Unfortunately I'm only 12," he said. His 19-year-old sister Julienne Ackley took the oath yesterday. "I can't believe she's joining. I think it's crazy, good crazy that is; I'm really proud of her."
The unit commander met with the enlistees' families and was pleased that their oath could correspond with the air show.
"This has been an amazing opportunity to see the P-51s alongside their contemporary counterparts and to meet the men and women who served our country so courageously for the last several decades," said Brig. Gen. Tom Botchie, 121st ARW commander.
"It is so important for people to hear their stories," he said. "These legends are heroes and we are lucky to have so many of them at Rickenbacker. The legend continues."
The air show concluded when more than 20 P-51s soared through the near cloudless Columbus sky.
The sound frightened Sophie Harrod from Kentucky.
But then her father, Evan, leaned into her stroller and said, "Don't worry, Honey; that's the sound of freedom."
Note: Senior Airman Kristin Crain contributed to this story.