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Just last year, the sight of vintage B-25 Mitchells in the sky above Urbana seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for history buffs, aviation enthusiasts or practically any other red-blooded American.
But on Friday morning, the warbirds were flocking back to Grimes Field Airport, this time on a mission to help the surviving Doolittle Tokyo Raiders honor their fallen one last time.
The B-25D nicknamed Yankee Warrior was among the first of six slated to roll in, making a 47-minute trip at 160mph to Urbana from the Detroit area.
During the warm weather months, there’s rarely a weekend that Yankee Warrior and her volunteer crew from the Yankee Air Museum isn’t flying off to an air show somewhere.
But an occasion like this — the chance to be part of history — was worth the cold November ride that will mark the plane’s last flight this year.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” Pat Trevas, a member of Yankee Warrior’s crew, said Friday.
In 2012, Yankee Warrior was among 20 B-25s that used Grimes Field as a staging area for events at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the fabled Doolittle raid during World War II, making for one of the largest gatherings of bombers since the war.
Upwards of 12,000 people crowded the Urbana airport then to see and take rides on the same type of plane used in that daring bombing run — the first of its kind to take the fight directly to mainland Japan.
The 16 B-25s in the historic raid did little physical damage to Japan, but the psychological blow they inflicted was tremendous.
The ranks of the Raiders have dwindled from the 80 who lifted off the deck of the USS Hornet on April 18, 1942, under the command of Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle to just four today.
Those surviving Raiders have decided they want to toast their departed brothers a final time, and will in a private ceremony today at the Air Force museum.
It’s something the Raiders have done at each of their reunions since 1959, when the city of Tucson, Ariz., presented them silver goblets bearing each man’s name.
After the toast, the goblets of those who’ve died since the last reunion are turned upside down.
Six B-25s will take off from Grimes Field about 12:15 p.m. today for a flyover at the Air Force museum scheduled for 1:45 p.m. The bombers then will return to Urbana and stay through Sunday morning, offering rides for a fee and just another all-around chance to see and hear history up close.
“I love the sound of radial engines,” said Don Williams, a Greenville resident who was on hand Friday morning with a few others to see the first B-25s come in.
Williams learned of the event this weekend in Dayton, but decided that Urbana was the place to be.
“It took a little digging to find out they were even here,” he said. “I knew they had to have a staging area. This will be the place to be when they take off.”
At last year’s event in Urbana, 54 people forked over the $425 apiece to take a ride on just Yankee Warrior alone, Trevas said.
It’s not exactly cheap to keep a bomber that’s almost 70 years old — and one that endured six combat missions over Italy during World War II — in the air.
For starters, its two Wright Cyclone engines burn through 120 gallons of fuel every hour, at $6 a gallon.
Even still, “It’s more airworthy than a lot of the commercial airlines,” said Bob Laird, a member of Yankee Warrior’s crew.
“She gets a lot of TLC,” Trevas added.
The crew said if enough people want rides, they’ll stay in Urbana for most of Sunday. The money helps the efforts.
“That’s what keeps it flying,” Trevas said.
Just dress appropriately.
“She’s air conditioned all 12 months of the year,” Trevas said.
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