Bygone bombers come in for landing at John Wayne Airport

Deirdre Newman

Ten-year-old Matthew Dollet-Hemphill bubbled with excitement Friday

as he watched a B-17 Flying Fortress and a B-24 Liberator land at

John Wayne Airport.

Matthew was one of the World War II aviation buffs on hand to

welcome the Wings of Freedom Tour, which will be at the airport until

Tuesday.

The tour brings the planes to various communities instead of

sticking them inside a museum, said Rob Collings, a pilot with the

Collings Foundation, which restored and tours the planes. This way,

people can see them in the air and, if they shell out $400, take a

ride in one of them.

The planes are a lasting symbol of the country’s courage, Collings

said.

“If it weren’t for these aircraft and the guys who flew them [in

World War II], a lot of the world wouldn’t have freedom, including

us,” Collings said.

The B-24 Liberator has the unique distinction of being the only

flying plane of its kind in the entire world, Collings said.

Matthew had read a lot about these type of planes in books but

hadn’t seen them up close and personal before. He was thrilled at the

opportunity to match his knowledge to the details of the planes.

“That B-24 -- in one of my books, I have a painting of it,” he

said. “It was in the Pacific Theater.”

After rattling off a few more facts about the planes, Matthew took

a breath and reflected on his fervent enthusiasm for the bombers.

“When I talk about World War II, I’m like this,” he said, holding

up his hand and moving his fingers like a mouth talking really fast.

When the aviation aficionados were finally allowed onto the

tarmac, Matthew ran onto the B-24, took hold of one of the machine

guns and made the rat-tat-tat noise, pretending he was shooting at a

target.

Another enthusiast, Karen Renfrow, also rushed up to the gun

turrets and posed for pictures next to one of the machine guns.

Renfrow, visiting from Chicago, came to the event with her dad.

“My Dad is a World War II buff and we grew up with years of

watching movies and getting instilled with a sense of what it was

like,” Renfrow said. “I wanted to see what it would feel like.”

Matthew pointed out that the airmen who operated the ball turrets

couldn’t be afraid of confined spaces or of heights. A perilously

narrow catwalk connects the front and back of the plane, and had

nothing below it but open sky during the bombing runs. That’s where

the airmen would go with a bucket to go to the bathroom during their

typical 10-hour missions, said George Brown, a radio operator on

B-24’s during World War II.

Brown, 81, of Ensenada, Mexico, who flew 39 missions in B-24’s

said he enjoyed seeing the plane restored to its former glory.

“I love it,” Brown said of the tour. “It’s great. I saw [the B-24]

land. It was fun seeing it in the air.”

It took $1.5 million and a thousand of volunteer hours to restore

the B-24. Many manufacturers donated parts, which kept the cost down,

said Mike Yamada, a volunteer who works with the Collings Foundation.

The plane was restored with a colorful picture on one side -- a

green dragon with one claw around a naked woman -- and named “The

Dragon and His Tail.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.