On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:50:56 -0500, Bush
wrote:

{snip}

The first signature was Ed Horton #10. I read on the Internet about
Staff Sergeant Edwin W. Horton, Jr. a gunner aboard aircraft number
10. Next was Thomas Griffen #9. Lieutenant Thomas C. Griffen,
navigator on aircraft number 9. I wondered about how he navigated an
aircraft skimming just above the waves at 250 kts, 600 miles off the
coast of Japan? The last signature, from the airman who made the most
careful effort to provide his signature for me was R E Cole #1.
Richard E. Cole, co-pilot on aircraft number 1. This was the man who
sat in the right seat of a B-25 bomber next to Lt. Colonel James H.
Doolittle, the aircraft we see in the films taking off first from the
Hornet. I wished I could have asked Mr. Cole if those six engine
control levers he must have been pushing against their stops during
take-off were maybe bent a little future forward from excessive
pressing?

I will frame my print with the three signatures and always display it
with pride. I was lucky to have gone to the Stuart Veterans Day Air
Show and to have passed by a small tent with three Legends Of Aviation
inside.

Mark Storrs

I would much rather meet and shake the hands of those gentlemen, or
any of the Tuskegee airmen, or survivors from any of the european or
pacific theaters of war or pearl harbor, or the pioneers like Hoover
and Yeager, (the list could go on) than any hollywood actor, or sports
hero, or government bigwig...any day.



Kirk
PPL-ASEL