Honored visitor

One of the greatest pleasures for the staff and volunteers of Mid America Flight Museum, is to get to meet the occasional World War II veterans who grace the museum. So it was this Saturday when 98 year old Charlie Clayton and his daughter Linda Clayton Haney visited us.

Born in 1920, Charlie, a native of Muenster, TX , his world was sort of small. Uncle Sam changed that when he entered the United States Army Air Corps and was whisked away to Michigan for training. From there it was off to the island of Corisica and later to Italy.

Near the end of his three and one half year hitch, he said his company had all their things packed up to set out for Japan. It was at that time, the Atomic Bomb unexpectedly diverted those plans and Charlie’s travels during the war came to an end.

A member of the USAAC, Charlie was not a pilot and did not spend a lot of time in aircraft. He said he recalled a particular flight where he and his company were transported in a C-47 and he recalled the fold down seat being rather flimsy. He said, honestly, the ride in the C-47 scared him a bit.

At any rate, he had traveled a good bit in Texas and had not been able over the years to physically see and touch another C-47, of which he reminisced about, if not necessarily with fondness. He and his daughter Linda had learned that Mid America Flight Museum has a C-47 and that was the aircraft he wanted to see and touch.

The MAFM C47/DC3, a venerated combat veteran, was on display at the museum this Saturday and Charlie was not disappointed. While Sky King was not out flying at the time, the volunteers indicated that Charlie might one day catch a ride on it when it was being flown. He recounted his previous flight without going into detail and said he had no intention of again flying, in anything but he was still excited to get to see another C-47 up close and personal.

Charlie was impressed with the comfortable seating Sky King is fitted with today juxtaposed against the one he had ridden in when he was in his twenties. The civilian aircraft known as the DC3’s military designation as the “C-47” could be configured specifically for mission tasks, from cargo transports, to troop transports, and even hauling things like jeeps.

Charlie had never gotten to see the cockpit of a C-47 so he got to see that too, up close and personal as volunteers arranged for him to have a seat in the pilot seat. Charlie explained that the crew had to spend some extra time when they landed circling the field as they had to manually activate the landing gear. Charlie was a bit amazed at the conglomeration of levers and instruments down to and including the purpose of the rudder pedals.

Frankie Glover was on hand to present Charlie a MAFM Sky King T-shirt which he seemed quite proud of. It was an honor for those of us at the museum to have gotten the chance to meet Charlie Clayton. He remains living testament to the Greatest Generation.