By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
With just 34 B-25s still flying around the world today, attendees at the 2024 Great Bend Airfest have a rare chance to experience history firsthand with a flight aboard one of the low-altitude bombers. The Arizona base of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) brought a B-17 and B-25 to this year's Airfest. Retired Navy Captian Rocky Racoosin said B-25s were a versatile low-altitude bomber during World War II.
"The B-25 is probably most commonly known for the Doolittle Raid," he said. "Jimmy Doolittle took 16 B-25s and crammed them aboard the USS Hornet, the Naval aircraft carrier, and they bombed Toyko in April of 1942, just a few months after Pearl Harbor. The president, Franklin Roosevelt, wanted to strike back at the Japanese and that was the way they figured out to do it."
The Arizona base of the CAF is one of 80 branches across the country. The CAF has now restored more than 170 WWII planes, including "Sentimental Journey," a B-17 that was used to fight fires in California after the war, and "Maid in the Shade," the B-25 that was restored to its original military configuration after flying 15 combat missions.
"It took 29 years to put the airplane back to the way you see it now," Racoosin said. "She was a crop duster, basically. She had all kinds of corrosion."
"Sentimental Journey" and "Maid in the Shade" took passengers up Saturday morning. The B-25's route included passes over Great Bend, Ellinwood, and Hoisington. Riders in the back of the B-25 had the rare opportunity to crawl into the tail gunner's space for a spectacular view. Seats started at $375 for the B-25 and all seats were sold by Saturday afternoon.
The B-17 and B-25 were scheduled for much-anticipated flyovers before the Great Bend High School and Central Plains High School football games Friday. Storms pushed the kickoffs of those games back at least 45 minutes. The delay meant the planes were unable to complete flights before darkness set in and the flyovers were canceled.