ENID, Okla. — An Enid group that has restored a World War II-era A-26 Invader recently was honored.
The Lady Liberty group
was awarded the 2012 Commemorative Air Force Distinguished Unit Citation
at the Commemorative Air Force Winter Conference in Midland, Texas.
“It was definitely a
surprise to the group. It’s quite an honor, because there are quite a
number of Commemorative Air Force groups in the U.S. It’s a pretty nice
honor,” said Dee Ann Ediger, Enid CAF board member.
The criteria for the
award is to have consistently demonstrated extraordinary, meritorious
and exceptional service to the Commemorative Air Force. The Enid-based
group, led by CAF Col. Ken Larcher, was presented the award in part to
significant improvements in its operations in 2012.
Lady Liberty arrived at
Enid Woodring Regional Airport June 23, 2012, relocating from Wiley Post
Airport in Oklahoma City. The citation mentioned the ability of the
group to move the plane from the Wiley Post hangar to Enid, 80-miles
away, when faced with the loss of its Wiley Post Airport hangar. The
aircraft and support equipment were moved to Enid.
Its new home is the
original Woodring Municipal hangar, built in the 1940s, and the
round-top style of the hangar fits in well with the vintage of the
aircraft, Ediger said. The crew plans to make improvements to the
hangar, which will include a museum, officers club, flag pole and
WWII-era art on the outside of the building. An east-facing entrance has
been planned, which will make for easy access for visitors to the
Vietnam Memorial Wall replica at Woodring when it arrives. The A-26
hangar is directly across the street from the Vietnam Wall site.
A crew from Oklahoma City
drives to Enid every weekend to work on the aircraft, along with a
number of volunteers and CAF members from the Enid area. The plane is
undergoing annual maintenance and inspection in Hangar 11 at Woodring.
“Ours is the oldest
flying A-26 in the CAF. It’s the only one with operational bomb bay
doors,” Ediger said. “The Guthrie group has one that doesn’t fly;
there’s still a lot of restoration to do. (The) Dallas-Fort Worth
(group) should fly this summer for air shows,” Ediger said.
She said the three
groups, Guthrie, Dallas-Fort Worth and Enid, are working together to
coordinate pilot and crew training. By doing that, they can exchange
pilots or crew, if needed.
The Lady Liberty was
taken out of military service, then used as a Forestry Department
tanker. It was sold for private use in the 1970s and eventually placed
in storage, where it went unused for a number of years, Ediger said.
Then it was sold to a private individual and eventually donated to the
CAF, and restoration began.
The winter months are
spent doing annual inspection. The CAF has sponsorships available for
all the planes it owns, to help restore them to flying condition. Once
in condition, the aircraft perform in air shows, and are used as static
displays and to sell rides. Each CAF group is responsible for the
maintenance of the aircraft. Groups receive some income from air shows
and tours, but heavily rely on donations to keep the planes flying,
Ediger said.
The aircraft owned by
Enid CAF is the oldest flying Invader, Ediger said. It was the 130th one
produced, and was accepted Aug. 18, 1944, at Long Beach, Calif. It was
flown to Great Dunnow, England on Sept. 20, 1944, where it was assigned
to the 9th Air Force.
The USAF Historical Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base does does have specific unit history of the aircraft.
Anyone interested in the Commemorative Air Force can go to a26ladyliberty.com.
Story and Photo: http://enidnews.com
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