What Cheered You Up Today?

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Nice. I spent a summer in Nuernberg as an exchange student.
 
Coordinated today with the local Commemorative Air Force squadron here to use their hangar for the presentation on WW2 I will be doing for my wife's class in March. Not only will I be putting on a presentation focusing on the causes of WW2 and able to see up close authentic uniforms and artifacts from WW2, but the kids will also get to see up close a B-25 and a TBM Avenger.

On top of it, it looks like I am going to become a member and volunteer my time to the museum. I am sure between being a hobby historian, a pilot (yes I know they will not let me fly the planes), and a licensed A&P mechanic I can dedicate some quality time to them.
 
As a life member, I welcome you to the CAF!
 
Mein Urgroßvater mütterlicherseits came from a Pferdehof near Oldenburg (Lower Saxony) and I still have distant relatives there. Visited them last in 1972. Just before the outbreak of WWI the Kaiser took the family's horses as the Oldenburg horse breed was highly prized by the German officer corps. The family farm was pretty much kaputt gegangen. As a younger son there was nothing for him. Relatives who were already in America (Chicago) sponsored him to emigrate to come to the USA. He was almost immediately hired by the CFD to care for their horses
 
My Gibson Girl kite showed up yesterday, but I had to wait til today to get it. No one here at the house heard the mailman knock, and the package required a signature. I'm going to see about duplicating it and using the replica for getting on air during Field Day this next year.
 
I used to have one of those kite's as a kid, my dad was in the RAF and acquired it by some means, this was the early 1950s. He was away overseas and we were housed on an RAF station pending joining him. I pulled the kite out one day a flew it in the field behind our house. While I had it drifting nicely on the wind I noticed a Vampire was circling around the kite and then a huge Shackleton joined in. It was quite thrilling for me until I saw the Station Warrant Office beetling toward me on his bicycle, yelling at me to pull the kite down. Luckily he was also our next door neighbour and explained to me and my now flustered mum that these kites when seen flying usually meant a pilot had crashed and was in distress and were still used by the RAF at that time. Needless to say the kite never saw the light of day again.
 
Last week I went with the Pre-wife to a thrift store. She likes those things. As I walked around I came upon a painting, very nicely framed. Not the original but I knew exactly what it was. "The Last Sleep Of the Brave" depicting the bodies of British Army officers Coghill and Melville, who were charged with rescuing the flags of the 24th Regiment from the Zulus during the Battle of Isandlwana January 22, 1879. I love this period of British history and I immediately grabbed it. $10 and I have a great painting for my wall. (yes, I know it's a copy, not the original but...I love it!). It measures 2'X3'.
 
I served with a relative of Coghill.
 

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