Off They Go! Into the Wild Blue Yonder! the Sky Is Their Highway by Rick A

THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 25, Number 45 Thursday, November 19, 2009 Off They Go! Into the Wild Blue Yonder! The Sky is Their Highway by Rick A. Richards A-37 Dragonfl y Most boys have a model airplane or two. So does Jim Read, but his collection is a bit different. It fi lls an entire hangar at Porter County Municipal Air- port – and every one of them fl ies. Read, a Marine Corps aviator in the 1950s, developed such a love of fl ying that he didn’t see why it shouldn’t con- tinue after he left the service. That love of fl ying is now being passed along to the public through the Indiana Aviation Museum that Read, a former Chester- ton banker, incorporated on Sept. 28, 2000. Although closed for the season now, Read said he’s looking forward to the 1957 Beechcraft T-34B Mentor. Pilot - Cathy Read museum’s 10th year in the spring. But after that, Read said the future of the museum is up in the air. He said he’s getting old and doesn’t know how much longer he can keep at it, even though his love of planes and fl ying haven’t diminished in more than half a century of fl ying. “I have a long love of aviation,” said Read. “I took lessons at Urschel Field when I was 16.” Urschel Field was lo- cated just west of where Kmart now sits on the north side of Valparaiso. In 1953, after two years at Indiana University, Read enlisted in the Navy. “I saw a poster in the Post Offi ce of a Cutlass landing on an aircraft carrier and I thought that was one of the neat- est things. I wanted to do that.” Cathy and Jim Read with their T34B Trojan, a two-seat Navy trainer. Off They Go! Continued on Page 2 (Photo by Rick A. Richards) THE Page 2 November 19, 2009 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 In Case Of Emergency, Dial e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] email: Classifieds - [email protected] http://www.thebeacher.com/ PRINTED WITH Published and Printed by TM Trademark of American Soybean Association THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden 911 Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is also delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. Off They Go! Continued from Page 1 At that time, he said his grades “weren’t much better than a C average” so he enlisted in the Naval Cadet Program in July, but wasn’t called for training at Pensacola, FL, until December. During his training, Read was stationed at four different fi elds from Mobile, Ala., to Pensacola and later was assigned to all-weather fl ight training in Corpus Christi, Texas. He concluded his training at Cherry Point, NC, and in May 1955 was commis- sioned as a pilot in the Marines. When he signed up, the U.S. was at war in Korea, but shortly after, the armistice was signed. By the time he became a pilot, the fi ghting war was over. Still, his fi rst overseas assignment was to South Ko- rea. He later was stationed in Japan, and fi nished his active duty in St. Louis, MO, with a Marine Avi- ation Reserve Training Detachment. He remained This AT-6G “Texan” is on display at the Indiana Aviation Museum in in the Marine Reserves, retiring with the rank of Valparaiso. (Photo by Rick A. Richards) captain. the family’s banking business at Chesterton State “I have a lot of pride in being in the Marines. Af- Bank, from which he is now retired. ter I got out, I fl ew in the reserves out of Glenview By working at the bank, Read was able to fi nan- in Illinois.” cially fuel his love of fl ying, fi rst with a 1958 Arrow that he and his brother leased from a Gary com- pany. Later, he said the opportunity came to buy a twin Commanche Piper, so they sold the Arrow and bought the Piper, which they completely refur- bished. In 1992, Read said the opportunity came along to Indiana Aviation Museum founder buy a T34 Beechcraft trainer, a plane that’s part of Jim Read poses at the museum today. (Seen on the cover.) the wing of an A-37 “That was a four-year rebuild project,” said Read, Dragonfl y, a light combat jet aircraft, who has fl own the plane to events in Lakeland, FL, in the museum and Oshkosh, WI. hangar at Porter Later, Read found one of the jewels of his collec- County Municipal Airport. (Photo by tion, a 1945 F4U-5N Corsair, but the problem was Rick A. Richards) the plane was in England. “We dickered around for awhile and fi nally made a deal,” said Read, who had the plane shipped to Jacksonville, FL, after plans to fl y it to the U.S. couldn’t be completed. But as much as Read loved that plane, he recent- ly sold it to another collector. Read said he hated to After his discharge, Read used the GI Bill to be- see the plane go, but it went to a collector who will come a fl ight instructor. At that time, he was fl ying make sure it is well maintained. out of Phillips Airport in Michigan City, which to- Read said that particular plane served was one day is Michigan City Municipal Airport. of 22 Corsairs in the Honduran Air Force and was But as much as Read loved fl ying, he wasn’t involved in combat in the 1969 confl ict with El Sal- making much of a living from it. So he went into vador. THE November 19, 2009 Page 3 Two views of the 1945 P-51D Mustang. Pilot - James Read Today, the centerpiece of his collection is a 1945 P-51D Mustang fi ghter. It was one of the planes that helped turn the tide in World War II. Read has lovingly restored the plane, which was declared surplus in 1958. Of 15,000 Mustangs built, only about 150 survive today, and of those, only a few are still in fl ying condition. There are more than half a dozen other planes, along with military vehicles, aircraft engines and hundreds of other military and aviation-related items, models and uniforms at the museum. Read’s wife, Cathy, who is one of a half a dozen pilots (all of them volunteers) for the museum, said she was as surprised as James when people began showing up to see the planes. She is the only female pilot for the museum (other pilots are Kris Kortokrax, Dave Thompson and Dale Snodgrass) and received her pilot’s license in 1996. In 2001, she received her commercial license and frequently fl ies the T-34 Mentor and the T-28 Trojan. “What I enjoy most about fl ying these planes is getting out and when I take my helmet off, little girls see that a woman is fl ying one of these planes,” Cathy Read and her husband, Jim, inside one of the display rooms at the Indiana Aviation Museum in Valparaiso. The Reads founded the museum she said. “It opens their eyes.” in 2000. (Photo by Rick A. Richards) While the museum is open to the public on week- And, he said, it’s a hands on museum. Visitors get ends six months of the year to the public, the big- a chance to get up close to the planes, touch them, gest joy for Read is showing off his collection to the and in some instances, sit in them. many school groups that visit. Off They Go! Continued on Page 4 “We’ve had schools, Cub Scouts and Boys & Girls Clubs out here,” said Read. “We’ve also had a lot of people involved in aviation stop by, a lot of them World War II vets.” One visitor, said Read, was Charles Albury, the co-pilot of Bockscar, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atom bomb on Nagasaki. Visitors to the museum are given an introduction through a 10-minute video, said Cathy. After that, visitors receive information on each of the planes in the collection and learn a bit about the basics of aviation and fl ight. “It doesn’t matter the age,” said Read, “we’ve had groups out here from fi rst graders up through 12th The centerpiece of the Indiana Aviation Museum is a World War II P-51 graders. Mustang. (See above.) (Photo by Rick A. Richards) THE Page 4 November 19, 2009 Off They Go! Continued from Page 3 Among the planes on display at the Indiana Aviation Museum are: A 1941 PT-17 Stearman, man- A 1953 DHC “Chipmunk,” A 1943 L-2 “Grasshopper,” ufactured by Boeing in Wichita, manufactured by deHavilland of manufactured by Taylorcraft, is a KS. It’s a two-seat biplane trainer Canada, was developed just after World War II vintage observation that was received by the Army Air World War II as a single-engine aircraft. It was used through the Corps on July 30, 1941. It was as- trainer for the Royal Air Force. Of early years of Vietnam. Of 1,726 signed to the 52nd Flying Train- 1,075 built, only 130 are still fl y- planes built, only 150 remain in ing Detachment in Albany, GA.

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