WWII Field Trips, and Bomber Activity

When she heard we were learning about World War II, one of our neighbors volunteered to tell us about her father and father-in-law's experiences in the war. We went over to her house one day and listened to stories about her father working as a radar operating aboard a submarine in the Pacific, and some of her husband's dad's memories about life before and during the War. It was fascinating! Hearing about what life was like in Salt Lake City, for regular families a lot like us, was a whole different perspective than the more generic one we got from most books about "War life in the United States." And, our friend also had her dad's old navy uniform and coat, which she showed us! It was pretty sobering to see Abe holding it up and think about how boys only a few years older than him were going off to war.

Warm lining from the Navy-issued coat her Dad wore

Another day, we drove up to the aircraft museum in Layton. We're always happy to have an excuse to visit the Hill Air Force Base, but this time our field trip was made extra awesome because we met friends there—and THEY brought their friend, a World War II Veteran, to talk to us! He was amazing. It was an honor to meet him.

The museum owns one of the very kinds of planes he flew in the war. He told us about being shot full of holes over Germany, and making an emergency landing with all his engines out. He was miraculously unhurt, but some of his crew were killed at their posts on that mission. It was incredible to hear about all this firsthand.

We also got to see one of the Norden bombsights, a cool innovation during the war that we'd read about in several airplane books

We didn't spend as much time on military planes as we might have, having covered them earlier during our Aviation Unit, but we did do an activity where we tried to drop gummy bears into paper cups on the ground while running past them at full speed. This is a very small taste of what pilots had to do when dropping bombs (and which the Norden bombsight helped with!). The children loved it.

Some of them took "at full speed" more literally than others...

Point Mugu Air Show

These guys were called the Breitling Jet Team. They were really fun to watch.

We had a trip to California planned to visit my brother and his family, and it was right during our Airplane Unit, so I just looked online to see if there was anything airplane-related we could do while we were there. There were lots of museums, of course, but by happy coincidence, there was an Air Show at the Naval Air Base at Point Mugu, just a couple hours away from my brother's house! Since he loves airplanes too, we of course decided we would go. And we were so glad we did!

It was the best Air Show. I haven't been to one since I was little, but I can't imagine anything being as good as this one was. There were tons of cool planes to see and explore on the ground, and then great air acts every half hour or so. And the last act was the Blue Angels! They are a team (I'm sure you've heard of them; even I had) that flies F/A-18s and demonstrates all the maneuvers and precision flying that goes with being a pilot for the Navy. They were totally amazing. We would have waited in line for hours (and we did! ha ha. It was SO crowded driving on to the base) to see them, and then to get to see all the other stuff TOO…it was wonderful. I don't know if I've remembered all the names of the planes right, but the boys helped me, so hopefully I don't mislabel anything in this post.

I thought the best plane we saw there was this gigantic C-5 Hercules. We even got to walk through it. It was nice to be in the shade for a minute on such a hot day!

Every part of this thing is just enormous. The tail!

(Stunt plane flying by above the tail)

Look at Sebby compared to those massive engines!

And look at Abe and the girls by the huge landing gear wheels! It was an amazing airplane to see up close.

There were some other big planes too. This is a C-130.

Inside the C-130

I don't know what this tanker plane is called, but it's the kind that can drop water on wildfires. It did a water drop demonstration and it was really cool!

Here is an F/A-18, like the Blue Angels fly

Sebby with another F/A-18

We got to look inside the cockpit of this MK-58

This is one of the Predator UAVs. We were kind of surprised we even got to see this, since we thought they were still pretty secret.

We can't remember what this one is, but it's some kind of information-gathering plane—look at that huge radar tower on top!

This little stunt biplane was really good. I can't believe how many twists and turns and ups and downs he could do. Here's a short video:

And now on to the best part, the Blue Angels! This KC-135 is actually part of the Blue Angels team too. It's a refueling plane.

Then there are the six F/A-18s. Often it's just four flying together in this diamond formation, and the two others zooming in for other maneuvers. The announcer said that in their diamond, there is only 18 inches from wingtip of one plane to the canopy of the next. 18 inches!!!

I loved it when they glinted in the sun like this.

They moved together like one plane. It was just astounding. HOW do they ever manage such precision?!?

They can get so CLOSE to each other without colliding! It makes you gasp to watch it.

Goldie was impressed.

This was cool: the jets coming between the sun and the ground, casting their huge shadows on the clouds of smoke below.

Short video

I loved it most when they turned on their smoke trails and made these beautiful patterns in the sky.

Afterwards, we waited around for the crowds to die down, so we got to sit outside near the runway and watch the sun go down over the airfield.

The C-5 got all closed up.

Theodore smiled at everyone.

And finally, we drove off down the coast; sunset behind us, moonrise ahead. What a perfect day.