The Fox Valley Aero Club Gave Me a Memorable Day

Welcome back!

A few weeks back I noticed that The Fox Valley Aero Club was going to have an airshow. I have always been curious to attend one of these events and never have…until now. I would like to tell you about my memorable day.

First some background…My father, Herman Martens, is in early stages of Alzheimers Disease. He can’t remember what we talked about 2 minutes ago, but his older memories are still there. My Dad is 88 years old. He served in the Army Air Corp from February 1941 to February 1945. During January 1942 he was on one of the very first troop ships that left San Francisco after Pearl Harbor. His service took him to Australia, Ceylon, India, and finally China near Kunming. He was a member of the 14th Air Force, 51st Fighter Group, 25th Fighter Squadron. As a Tech Sargeant he worked as a mechanic on P-40 fighter planes and P-51 fighter planes. Their group adopted the nickname “Assam Draggins“…having picked-up that name from their time in India. Their airplanes would be familiar to many of us as they had the shark teeth painting of the front fuselage made famous by the Flying Tigers AVG.

I thought it would be fun to take my Dad to the airshow. My Dad has a baseball cap that he wears…it identifies him as a veteran of WWII. When I went to my folks house to pick up my Dad, my Mom suggested he wear his cap.

When we arrived at the The Fox Valley Aero Club Airfield, we were warmly greeted by one of the members who directed me to a place where I could park my car so Dad would not have to walk too far. After parking we went nearer the runway to have a closer look at all the radio-controlled airplanes on the ground and to have a good vantage point to watch the operators control their planes in flight. It was fascinating! Some pretty amazing things happen here…both in technology, skill, and camaraderie among the “pilots and mechanics”.

My Dad caught the eye of a guy…I could see this man wanted to talk to my Dad…he had noticed my Dad’s WWII veteran cap. He came over and offered his hand to my father and thanked him for his service. (I was pretty proud to be with my Dad.) He introduced himself as Peter Brown. For the next couple of hours Peter spent time with us and talked with Dad asking him about his background working on P-40 and P-51 fighters. Peter also shared about his Uncle who had been in the Navy serving and working on airplanes on the USS Yorktown. During the Battle of Midway his Uncle had spent four hours in the ocean after the Yorktown had been abandoned due to enemy damage to the aircraft carrier.

Peter flies radio-controlled airplanes as well. He gave Dad and I a lot of information on the hobby…answered all of our questions. I could tell that Peter not only knew the “nuts and bolts” of flying these planes but he had great love in knowing about the original planes that these model planes copied.

Peter introduced us to some other guys who had planes at the field…all who were very friendly and treated my father with respect. Wouldn’t you know it …one of the guys had a scale model of a P-40…shark teeth logo and all! He invited Dad out on to the field to take a closer look at the plane. What amazing detail this man had put into this plane he had built. He enjoyed (as well as I) having an opportunity to hear my Dad tell about working on the “real thing”.

What a great day I had! My Father will not remember this day because of the disease of Alzheimers, but I was given a gift…thanks to a very nice man, Peter Brown, and the folks of The Fox Valley Aero Club.

I would encourage you to visit an airshow at The Fox Valley Aero Club.

Photos of the event were captured by Dan Farina Studios and prints are available for purchase on the site.