“OLD BIRD” TAKES ONE LAST FLIGHT TO SALUTE CIVILIANS WHO PATROLLED FOR GERMAN U-BOATS 

Civilian Pilot Hopes Commemorative Air Tour Will Spur Interest in Unheralded Story of the Civil Air Patrol, while Inspiring Kids to Pursue Aviation 

West Palm Beach, Florida, July 30, 2007 – Sixty-five years ago a civilian pilot and his co-pilot sat surrounded by the small fuselage of a Stinson 10A single-engine plane, its guts nothing more than a little wood, metal and fabric, soaring above the Atlantic Coast doing something that took guts of steel. They were hunting German submarines known for shooting planes out of the sky and ships out of the water.

This week, the son of an 83 year old pilot some call “Attaway Gassaway” is taking to the skies in his vintage Stinson and he is flying up the East Coast on a whirlwind, one-day salute to those brave civilian members of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP).  Owen Gassaway’ son is taking his “Proud Old Bird” to its final roosting place, the New England Air Museum in Hartford, Connecticut at Bradley International Airport, where along with other classic CAP veteran aircraft he hopes his donation will also help inspire kids’ interest in aviation.

Gassaway’s son Owen III’s commemorative tour will either stop or make a fly-by at 12 CAP private airfields where little 4-cylinder, piston planes launched to help defend an East Coast left unprotected by the demands of World War II.  An apropos circle around the Statue of Liberty will be a highlight before he finishes the trip at Windsor Locks, Connecticut; the end of the voyage for Gassaway’s Old Bird. 

“As a young man, I remember seeing burning ships in the throat of water between Florida and Grand Bahamas Island 42 days in a row,” recalls Gassaway.   “The history I know about CAP flights stopping those U-Boat attacks isn’t being recognized properly until lately.” 

Gassaway’s home base, Lantana Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, was one of the first CAP airfields.  For the past 60 years Gassaway has owned and run the Fixed Base Operation there, Florida Airmotive, Inc. servicing private planes in partnership with Phillips 66^® Aviation fuels. 

While Gassaway hopes this commemorative flight will drive interest in the story of the CAP, he also wants to inspire young people to pursue aviation.  Already, 30,000 kids have gone on aviation tours with Gassaway’s help as part of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagle program.  An EAA Young Eagle plane – marked with an unmistakable American eagle and its flying feathers – will accompany the Stinson as he tours the CAP airfields, likewise carrying CAP emblems.   

Old Bird Takes One Last Flight in Honor of CAP and Kids

 “I want to interest people in the history of the CAP, but equally important is promoting the Young Eagles program,” he says.  Phillips 66 is a long-time supporter of Young Eagles, supplying rebates on avgas fuel to pilots who take kids flying.

Once a tank mechanic for General George Patton, Gassaway is committed to keeping General Aviation alive and that propels his interest in getting kids to think about flight.  Lantana Airport alone is responsible for giving 10,000 Young Eagles their first taste of flying.  More than a few of those go on to become pilots.

In some ways, the CAP was born out of a desire to keep General Aviation going.  The fear was that General Aviation would be grounded due to war, as it was in most countries such as England and Germany. 

In 1942 from Mexico to Maine, German subs had been ravaging the coasts, sinking freighters, terrifying residents, closing shipping lanes, yet some dedicated civilians traded their time, family life, planes and well-being to finding the well-armed U-Boats for a short-handed U.S. Navy.  Some of these everyday folks and their General Aviation planes even carried 100-pound bombs in anticipation of sinking a deadly submarine which had become a threat to their nation. 

“Can you imagine that happening today?” muses Gassaway. 

Famous aviation cartoonist Zach Moseley also flew with the CAP out of Lantana during WWII. His signature style is emblazoned on Gassaway’s Stinson 10A – a trademark CAP logo of a comical plane panting, flapping and struggling to carry a huge bomb.  “Those planes were underpowered, carrying two big guys and weren’t meant to carry bombs,” Gassaway explains.  “I guess Zack Moseley found it comical.”  Today, Moseley’s CAP logos and aviation cartoons are collectible art works.

By war’s end, CAP crews had patrolled more than 24 million miles over water, sighted 173 enemy submarines and even sank two of them – an extraordinary accomplishment for a civilian force using small 4-cylinder planes.  Nearly 100 of those planes would be lost, and almost two dozen civilians lost their lives. 

Volunteers from all walks of life joined the CAP effort, and by the end of WWII some 100,000 people had signed up to defend the country.  “There was quite a diversity of people in the CAP at the time,” Gassaway says.

            Today, CAP members still patrol the Coasts but not for combat support.  These days the CAP’s mission involves emergency services, aerospace education and cadet training program. Key activities are search and rescue, disaster relief and humanitarian support.

The CAP is so important in so many ways that it’s important not to forget its history,” says Gassaway.  Remember we are still busy with “Homeland Defense”!