Thousands cheer sky-high thrills at Millville Memorial Day air show

As thousands of people crowded into Millville, N.J., airport on Sunday for the Memorial Day Airshow, Larry D. Kelley made final preparations to fly his lovingly restored 1944 B-25J, named Panchito for a Disney cartoon rooster painted on its nose but, in fact, a war plane once armed with 18 machine guns and loaded with 3,200 pounds of bombs.

Kelley, from Georgetown, Del., said he's been flying for 55 of his 70 years, including the last 20 in his B-25.

"This was the iconic plane that was in all the Allied air forces from the beginning of World War II to the end, and changed the course of the war," Kelley said, while children stared up into the belly of the plane, where Kelley keeps five replica bombs signed by veterans who worked on B-25s.

"From Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor," he said, "until April 18, 1942, it was bad news, bad news, bad news for us. They were humiliating us."

Then, Col. Jimmy Doolittle led 16 B-25s in an attack on Tokyo. "The headlines read, 'American Bombers Hit Tokyo,' " Kelley said, eyes lighting up as his gleaming silver plane attracted crowds. "The Japanese had been telling their people Japan was an island fortress that would never be attacked. Doolittle's Tokyo Raiders did huge psychological damage. The B-25 changed the course of the war."

As Kelley prepared to pilot Panchito in a demonstration flight, the show, starring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels piloting fighter jets in thrillingly tight formations, began its four-hour mix of military flying to a patriotic soundtrack, and old-school stunt daredevils doing rolls, loops, and seemingly out-of-control death spirals that inspired the announcer to plead, "Put your hand back on the stick, please, and fly the airplane."

The barnstormer highlight was pilot Greg Shelton doing aerobatics in his 1943 red, white, and blue 450 Super Stearman biplane while his wife, Ashley, walked on the wings. "He just went about 5Gs trying to throw her off the airplane," the announcer said as the Sheltons passed low over the crowd. "Greg! Be nice to your wife!"

As the wingwalker held on during a 115 mile-per-hour, upside-down roll, the announcer told the crowd, "Does she get bugs in her teeth? Yeah, occasionally."

The show benefits the Millville Army Air Field Museum, which preserves the history of the base dedicated by the U.S. War Department in 1941 as "America's First Defense Airport," where 1,500 World War II pilots received advanced gunnery training in P-47 Thunderbolt and P-40 Warhawk fighter planes.

Owen Garrison, 92, from Bridgeton, who trains museum tour guides while Florence, his wife of 63 years, works the front desk, said he was stationed on the USS Monterey, loading 40-millimeter machine guns during 13 combat missions in the China Sea.

"It was a rough time," Garrison said. "I came home but I know a lot of guys who didn't come home. The worst memory is the sound of guys inside of a sinking ship, banging on the walls, trying to get out. They can't get out and there's not a damn thing you can do."

Garrison said he was on bridge watch when Admiral William "Bull" Halsey's Third Fleet unexpectedly ran into what became known as "Halsey's Typhoon."

"Winds over 100 miles an hour and waves 100 feet high," Garrison said. Three destroyers and nearly 800 men were lost. "Our ship was on fire. We were dead in the water. We got the order: 'Either get the ship started and join the task force or take the long swim.' Somehow, we got power restored. We had burials at sea. We were beat not by an enemy, but by Mother Nature."

Garrison caught himself becoming emotional. "I break up sometimes when I talk about this," he said. "Florence will come over and help me through it."