TOP STORY OF THE DAY, brought to you free by WICU: Local descendant of war hero happy with involvement

Thursday, April 15, 2021
IVY JACOBS photo - Pilots Jordan Brown of Center Point, and John Cotter, from Linton, are proud to participate in the Commemorative Air Force’s living history flight and aircraft tour experience for “That’s All, Brother.” They are pictured during Monday’s first flight out of Hoosier Aviation at Terre Haute Regional Airport.

After a weather delay, the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control began shortly after midnight along the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy Tuesday, June 6, 1944. More than 13,000 American, British and Canadian paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines during Operation Overlord (codename for the Battle of Normandy). Many soldiers, young men 17-19 years old, went into battle to confuse the German forces.

Lt. Col. John Donalson piloted the lead C-47 carrying the Pathfinders, paratroopers who would mark the way for the incoming invasion forces. Their job was to seize areas for the drop zones and use signal lanterns and pocket flashlights to guide Allied aircraft to their targets.

Donalson wanted to send Adolph Hitler a message — his days were numbered — which is why he named his plane “That’s All, Brother.”

IVY JACOBS PHOTO - “That’s All, Brother” is a Douglas C-47 Skytrain. It took more than 1,600 hours to restore the plane to its 1944 condition after discovered in an airplane “boneyard.” The plane, the lead plane during Operation Overlord on D-Day in 1944, landed Monday at Hoosier Aviation in Terre Haute.

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain, which took more than 1,600 hours to restore to its 1944 condition after found in a “boneyard,” landed at Hoosier Aviation in Terre Haute Monday.

Pilots Jordan Brown of Center Point and John Cotter from Linton are proud to participate in the Commemorative Air Force’s living history flight and aircraft tour experience for “That’s All, Brother.”

“It’s our job to pass this history onto the youth of America,” said Brown, who owns Hoosier Aviation with his wife, Nicole. “A lot of this stuff becomes lost over time, and it’s our job to preserve it for the future.”

IVY JACOBS PHOTO - A Commemorative Air Force participant points to the door used by paratroopers when exiting the plane. It was also the emergency exit if a problem occurred during Monday’s first light of the “That’s All, Brother” aircraft tour at Hoosier Aviation at Terre Haute Regional Airport.

Brown grew up listening to his grandfather Willis Harold Plunkett’s stories. Plunkett served four years in the Army Air Corp during WWII as a radio operator on the B-17 “Peggy O’Neil” and ball turret gunner on the B-17 “Wiley Witch,” flying 56 missions out of N. Africa and Italy, with the 49th squadron, Second Bomb Group.

Among Plunkett’s awards during his service was the Purple Heart.

On Saturday, June 22, 2019, Brown was returning from a commemorative flight over the U.S. Cemetery in Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the 70th commemoration of the Berlin Airlift, and the Paris Airshow in France when his grandfather died.

IVY JACOBS PHOTO - The scene out a window of the “That’s All, Brother” C-47 Skytrain plane is Vigo County Monday. The visible black and white lines on the wing were painted to prevent the plane from being shot down by friendly fire during the Battle of Normandy. The plane landed Monday at Hoosier Aviation in Terre Haute.

“It’s a tribute to his legacy as an 18-year old kid serving in combat, being shot at in these planes,” said Brown. “We are trying to keep those stories alive.”

Cotter, who grew up in Linton and attending Indiana State University for aviation, agrees.

“I have always wanted to fly airplanes,” said Cotter, a United Airlines pilot. “Getting involved with Commemorative Air Force, and learning the history, now the fun of flying is also sharing the stories of the men and women in the war. Whether they built the planes like “Rosie the Riveter,” the pilots flying the planes, or the troops in the back or on the ground, we have got to share those stories. Schools don’t have time or resources to share these pieces of history in the classroom.”

IVY JACOBS PHOTO - The lights inside the Douglas C-47 Skytrain let the Pathfinder paratroopers know when to exit the plane during Operation Overlord, Tuesday, June 6, 1944.

The historic plane was available for ground tours and flights Tuesday through Thursday before continuing the April tour. The C-47 will have a layover at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Both men recommend families visit a CAF aircraft tour when one is available locally.

“We can come out, and people can see it, touch it, hear it, they can take a ride in it,” said Cotter about the memory of experiencing living history. “It makes an impact.”

IVY JACOBS PHOTO - “That’s All, Brother” is a Douglas C-47 Skytrain. It took more than 1,600 hours to restore the plane to its 1944 condition after discovered in an airplane “boneyard.” The plane, the lead plane during Operation Overlord on D-Day in 1944, landed Monday at Hoosier Aviation in Terre Haute.

Both men admit their favorite movie is the 1990 film “Memphis Belle.” The film is a fictionalization of the 1944 documentary about the last bombing run of the flying fortress. It portrays the struggle of flying a mission by the “seat of your pants,” using the landmarks on the ground for navigation while hitting a target under a barrage of enemy gunfire.

“We don’t have a frame of reference to imagine what something like that must have been back then,” said Cotter about all pilots in WWII. “It’s not like flying a 747 now. They dealt with weather conditions, terrible radio communications, navigating at night. It’s overwhelming to think they could do it.”

Brown has flown the exact same route used by the Allies over the North Atlantic on D-Day.

“We had two GPS systems and satellite phones, and they were doing all that by using the stars at night and using a drift meter calculating the winds. They were relying upon verbal reports, and they hit a dot in the North Atlantic to find an airport,” said Brown about the six-hour flight that would have been under fire. “It’s hard to imagine that today. You ask yourself when you’re up there, how did they ever do this? It is overwhelming.”

Learn more about the “That’s All, Brother” 2021 Tour by logging onto https://thatsallbrother.org/.

The Commemorative Air Force® (CAF) was founded to preserve history by restoring historic World War II aircraft to flying conditions and educating new generations of Americans on military aviation’s value. This history is worth saving and worth passing on.

IVY JACOBS PHOTO - Pilots Jordan Brown of Center Point, and John Cotter, from Linton, are proud to participate in the Commemorative Air Force’s living history flight and aircraft tour experience for “That’s All, Brother.”

Log onto commemorativeairforce.org/ to support the preservation work of the Commemorative Air Force.

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