The aircraft within the Flying Heritage Collection were created at a time when aviation was on the edge of discovery and mastery, the main era of the FHC collection is combat aircraft of WWII. 

Some of the rarest survivors in the world are on display including examples from the U.S., British, German, Russian and Japanese countries who participated in the second World War. These rare survivors were almost exclusivly recovered from former battlegrounds and airfields. FHC is one of the largest flying veteran Combat Aircraft collections in the world.

In 1998, Paul G. Allen began acquiring and preserving these iconic warriors and his passion for aviation history is now of display for all to enjoy. Vistiing the Flying Heritage Museum is one of the best places you can choose to spend time viewing.  In the new home of the FHC, a restored WWII Ready Hanger, these planes come to life and are displayed as if the pilots were ready to jump in and take off to fight for thier countries.

Flightline Fabrications looks forward to going back again, again, and again!  Our hats off to FHC for a great museum. 

“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.”

—George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789

Note:  In this day and age where the “politically correct” so loudly declare the imagined mandate of “Separation of church and state” (which never appears within the United States Constitution or any other formative or directive government document) it is enlightening to see one of our most beloved founding fathers so clearly stating his belief in God in of all things the first ever Presidential Inaugural Address.

November 20, 1943 – United States Marines, supported by the United States Navy launch Operation Galvanic – The Battle of Tarawa.  The attacking Marines suffer heavy casualties from Japanese artillery and machinegun fire as they land on the small atoll in the Gilbert Islands.  The battle lasted three days and marked the second time the United States had been on the offensive in the Pacific Campaign (the first being Guadalcanal).

The island was garrisoned by 2,619 Japanese troops supported by 2,217 Japanese and Korean laborers.  At the battles end, 17 Japenese soldiers and 127 Korean laborers were all that survived of the 4800+ defenders.  The U.S. suffered 1,687 killed and 2,296 wounded.

November 20, 1945 – Trials against twenty four Nazi war criminals begin at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Germany

November 20, 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis comes to a peaceful end.  United States President John F. Kennedy discontinues the naval blockade and quarantine of Cuba following the Soviet Union agreeing to remove strategic missiles from the Caribbean island nation.  The crisis marked possibly the closest the world had come to the realization of nuclear war as the two superpowers postured and threatened in the deadly game of brinkmanship.

William J. “Wild Bill” Guarnere (born 28 April 1922) is a veteran sergeant of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) attached to the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during the Second World War. He was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Frank John Hughes.

This great video clip shows Wild Bill Guarnere speaking at the American Veterans Center Conference which was held in Washington DC on November 9-11,2006. You will never think of Apples the same way again!

Flightline Fabrications

“It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.”

—Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August, 19 1785

Quote courtesy of The Patriot Post

Most Japanese Americans who fought in WWII were Nisei, second-generation Japanese Americans born in the U.S. Nevertheless, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese American men were categorized as 4C (enemy alien) and therefore non-draftable.

As a regimental combat team, the 442nd RCT was a self-sufficient fighting formation of three infantry battalions (originally 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions, 442d Infantry, and later the 100th Infantry Battalion in place of the 1st), the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, the 232nd Engineering Company, an anti-tank company, cannon company, service company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and the 206th Army Band.

Flightline Fabrications recently interviewed retired 442nd Regimental Combat Team US Army Veteran Arthur Iwasaki.  Mr. Iwasaki was generous enough to sit down for our Living History Project and tell us about his life during WWII, fighting in Europe,  and one of the soldiers who helped to rescue the “Lost Battalion” in France during WWII.

The 442nd famously rescued the “Lost Battalion” at Biffontaine. Pursuant to army tradition of never leaving soldiers behind, over a five-day period, from October 26 to October 30, 1944, the 442nd suffered the loss of nearly half of its roster—over 800 casualties, including 121 dead — while rescuing 211 members of the 36th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry, which had been surrounded by German forces in the Vosges mountains since October 24.

Over the next three weeks Flightline Fabrications will be posting segments of Mr Iwasaki’s interview for all generations to hear.  Arthur’s story is truly one of honor, sacrifice, and heroism;  you will feel for Arthur and the men who fought along side him.

Flightline Fabrications

We at Flightline Fabrications salute our nation’s veterans for their selfless service to our great country.  Their sacrifices have maintained the independence we enjoy and without them none of our treasured freedoms would exist.  Whether you served in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard or Merchant Marines, during time of war or peace, saw combat or not, we thank you for your service.

As way of showing our gratitude, all items in our store are on sale 10% off for the next 24 hours.  If you’re new to Flightline Fabrications, welcome.  If you’ve looked before, look again.  We are constantly adding new items for you to display your pride of service.

After four months of some of the most brutal fighting of the First World War, Canadian troops captured the town of Passchendaele, Belgium in early November, 1917.  The battle, one of the most controversial of the era, has come to symbolize the extremes of that war – almost inconceivable horror and undeniable heroism and valor.

The numbers alone tell a grim story: There were almost half a million casualties in the Battle of Passchendaele.  Historians estimate that the battle claimed at least 140, 000 lives and that as many as a million shells were exploded in the fields surrounding the town, turning the terrain into a barren, lunar landscape of mud and water-filled craters.

British Poet Siegried Sassoon simply called it “Hell”!

http://www.passchendaelethemovie.com/

“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.”
-James Madison, Federalist No. 10

Flightline Fabrications is NOT a political entity nor do we officially endorse any party or candidate.  We do however believe in the freedoms guaranteed in the United States Constitution and we honor those men and women who have sacrificed to preserve those freedoms.  Among these freedoms is the right to participate as citizens in the election of our local, state and national leaders.  When these freedoms are threatened on any scale, large or small, we are justly outraged and WILL NOT stand idly by while people or organizations would usurp the power of individuals through intimation, obstruction or any other illegal or immoral means.

In this first clip we see two Black Panthers standing in front of a polling place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania dressed militantly and brandishing billy clubs is certainly my idea of intimidation.  You decide for yourself if you agree.  One more thing; ask yourself which candidate these Black Panthers were supporting and whos supporters they hoped to intimidate.  Is it me or is this sort of behavior scary to be seeing in the United States of America in 2008?

The second clip is an expanded report on the above incident from Fox News.

Thirdly as have yet another incident. Inthis case  a Poll Observer with credentials was threatened and denied legal entry into a polling place.  Apparently the Philadephia police were ineffective and the poll workers were successful in defying election law and conducted their work without poll observer oversight.