COMING HOME

That's not all for this famous C-47

That's all Brother — the C-47 aircraft that led the airborne invasion of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 and lives at the Commemorative Air Force Central Texas Wing Museum at the San Marcos Regional Airport — completed a tour this week after several stops across Europe and the United Kingdom, including Normandy, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Mindi Russell, crew chief, said That’s All Brother led over 800 other C-47s that contained over 13,000 paratroopers on D-Day.

“It's probably the most historically significant aircraft that still flies today, and we have it here in San Marcos,” Russell said.

Andy Maag, lead pilot, said the aircraft’s military career was short lived but significant. In addition to D-Day, he said it flew the remainder of WWII, participating in approximately five major airborne missions and transporting soldiers and supplies.

“Another one of the things that the C-47 was capable of doing was medevac,” Maag said. “It could carry up to 18 wounded personnel basically on stretcher beds that could be installed in the back of the plane.”

That’s All Brother’s recent mission was a busy one, and people were tuned in to watch its journey. Russell said that the plane was the most watched aircraft on FlightRadar24, Flight-Aware (flight tracker apps) and Facebook.

“We were taking the plane back to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and then also on to Germany for the 75th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift,” Russell said. “I actually was the crew chief for the first leg, so I took the plane from San Marcos over to England. We went up the East Coast and met up with the other planes in Oxford, Connecticut, and then we went on to Presque Isle, Maine, Goose Bay, Labrador (Canada), Narsarsuaq, Greenland, Reykjavik, Iceland, Prestwick, Scotland [and] over … England.”

Maag said while in England, the crew participated in many events to commemorate what occurred in WWII.

“We participated in a number of events there, all of those [events focused] around commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and obviously, the sacrifices made by the Greatest Generation on that day and in those years during World War II,” Maag said. “We participated in Normandy as well. We did cross channel parachute jumps with paratroopers who used World War II style parachute gear. And again, their mission is the same as ours. They are living historians and participating in these living history exhibitions to pay tribute to World War II veterans.”

As Russell mentioned, the plane's next stop after its extensive travel across the east coast of the United States and Canada and across the pond to the United Kingdom was Germany. Maag pointed to the history of war and rebuilding that was honored during the mission.

“We went to near Frankfurt, to Wiesbaden [Germany], which is the headquarters of the American Army Forces in Europe. Wiesbaden was also the start of the Berlin Airlift route,” Maag said. “We were there for the 75th commemoration of the Berlin Airlift. So very quickly we went from fighting against Germany in World War II to rebuilding Germany. So that's one of the wonderful stories of history is how we went from fighting to liberating Europe to helping to rebuild Europe and kind of create the environment in which we live today.”

Since Russell was on the first leg of the flight, she didn’t get to see Normandy, which she would like to do in the future. She said Scotland was beautiful and the people were so friendly. However, what she was most impressed by was people’s appreciation and connection to WWII.

“The other thing that stuck out to me was the emotional reactions we got from the people in Europe when we came with that plane,” Russell said. “Even the young kids knew what D-Day was. Mostly everybody knew somebody or had a relative that died in World War II over there. They were so emotionally appreciative of not only what … the troops did on D-Day, what the US did, but just for us taking the effort to bring the plane back for the 80th anniversary.”

Maag said the mission involved an extensive crew of around 18 people with various key roles. He flew the aircraft for about ten days of the mission.

“Especially when you talk about flying over the Atlantic, some of those days are very long. You might do 12 to 16 hours of flying in a day,” Maag said. “So we bring two full crews for that, so that you can fly the first half of the day with one crew and the second half with the fresh crew, just so you're not feeling too much fatigue.”

Russell’s main role before take-off as Crew Chief is to make sure the plane is ready for flight.

“During flight, usually I'm in the jump seat and I'm helping the pilots watch gauges, watch out for traffic, that type of stuff,” Russell said. “Now, if we're doing a living history ride flight, in which people can purchase a ride on the aircraft, then I'm in the back with them making sure everything is safe and that they're having a good time.”

Learn more about the plane and the CAF Central Texas Wing museum at this link centraltexaswing. org. Take part in a living history experience yourself this weekend at the CAF Central Texas Wing. For more information, see the Friday, July 5 issue of the San Marcos Daily Record.

Photo by Peyton Stikeleather & Paul van den Berg