Meeting an Ace

On Wednesday we flew to Spirit Lake, IA to visit with an aviation
artist, both for the inn and to evaluate his ability to appear at our
upcoming Iowa City 2-day hoopla, the Big Kids Toy Show.

(Yes, we visited the Surf Ballroom, where Buddy Holly played his last
gig. It's still there, and still going strong. No, we didn't visit the
crash site where "The Music Died"...)

Anyway, the painting that most interested me was one depicting a
Mustang shooting down a BF-109. It was autographed by the pilot,
Robert Abernathy, and I commented to Ernie, the artist, on how many of
these World War II vets we were losing every day.

To my surprise, the artist asked if we'd like be meet "Ab". We, of
course, responded in the affirmative, and he immediately phoned "Ab" to
see if it would be okay. It was.

We headed over to the "assisted living home" where "Ab" is now housed.
As we pulled into the driveway, an elderly gentleman was being helped
into the home's shuttle van -- at which point our artist friend
recognized Ab! We quickly approached the van, which was about to take
him to some forgotten doctor's appointment.

Of course, Ab had TOLD the driver that he had friends en route, but --
as happens so often to the extremely old -- he was not believed. The
driver, a nice young man, obviously hears these stories all the time,
and he simply smiles and glad-hands them into the van. This time, of
course, it was real -- but how could he have known?

Ab shuffled back inside, leaning heavily on his walker. He's had two
strokes, and moves with great effort -- but, according to Ernie (the
artist), until fairly recently he was on his own. The strokes removed
his ability to drive, and now he's one of the many unfortunate souls
that are warehoused against their will.

He sat down at a table, and asked what we'd like written on our
painting. We had hoped to have time to hear all of his wonderful
stories, but the driver was impatiently waiting outside, so we just
asked him to sign whatever he wanted. He wrote "Many safe landings",
and signed the print again in his careful, left-handed scrawl.

Then, just like that, it was time for him to go. Sadly, as with all
partings in this place, we all knew that we'd never see each other
again. Ab, once a steely-eyed P-51 fighter jock, battling the
Luftwaffe over the skies of Europe, shuffled off to his doctor's
appointment, looking down at his feet and feeling for every step.

He's one of the only fighter pilots to have shot down an ME-262 jet
fighter in a real dogfight. (Most were downed while landing or taking
off, negating their huge speed advantage.) Ab took his down with a
deflection shot that was "one for the books", raking the 262 from nose
to tail with machine gun fire, flaming an engine. The German pilot,
with over 100 victories, bailed out and survived.

A couple of years ago Ernie was actually able to locate the German
pilot Ab shot down, and put them in telephone contact. What an amazing
conversation THAT must've been.

It's hard to imagine a world without these men -- but it's nearly here.

--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"