The exhibit will be part of the Tecumseh Council’s centennial celebration Friday, April 30, through Sunday, May 2. It opens to the public at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 1.
The celebration will feature displays on fire building and rocket building, model campsites of the past, Pinewood Derby car racing and tomahawk throwing.
Air Scouts was founded in 1943 to encourage Scouts’ interest in aviation. It continued into the 1950s and has been absorbed into Scouting’s Explorer program.
While working on a 1994 Scout event, Council volunteer Pete Unitt, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, spotted a sign in front of a Northrop P-61 Black Widow at the National Museum of the United States Air Force saying that Tecumseh Council Air Scouts had the plane at Urbana’s Grimes Field for 10 years.
Urbana aviation pioneer Warren Grimes “had the biggest and longest living Air Scout Squadron in the Tecumseh Council,” Unitt said.
Parker Foundry and the Ohio Air National Guard sponsored two of the three Springfield units and South Charleston and New Carlisle each had one.
Although familiar with the story of Springfield Air Scout David Tittle, whose name is on the trophy awarded to the top graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Unitt says he’s looking for more Clark County stories.
He’d like to hear from local Air Scouts and family members, record stories and borrow memorabilia for the day’s exhibit, if possible.
Said Unitt: “It’s been a passion, ever since I first found out about this.”
Unitt can be reached on his cell phone, (937) 901-7316.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.
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