Reaching Lifelong Goals as a Nontraditional Student

This installment begins my journal of my History Major Dream Vacation series.   During the first two weeks of September, my wife and I went on a cross-country vacation to visit her brother in the Wash DC area, a sister in Oley PA and my daughter in Columbus OH.  Our first stop was in Ohio to visit my Daughter Heather.   She lives about an hour north of the USAF National Museum in Dayton, OH.   Of course, this air museum is near the top of my “bucket list” of places to see before I die.   This is one of the best air museums in the US and has many very significant, famous aircraft.   I was so excited when I walked through the doors of this facility that I kind of left everyone in my party behind.   The first gallery of the museum has the WWI collection as it’s center piece.   Spads and Fokkers and Jennys, oh my!!   There are some very important aircraft in this collection, one WWI fighter used by the Allies and flown by our US pilots both before we entered the war in the French Escadrilles and the fledgling Air Corps was this SPAD VII.   This early version of the SPAD is very rare and the restoration is absolutely wonderful.  I was spellbound by all of these WWI aircraft as this is my primary focus in my Historical research.   The collection also contains artifacts from WWI that were of great interest to me

for my goal of writing a Biography of the WWI Ace Ernst Udet.   Here we have a section of fabric off of one of the aircraft that he shot down.   It has his name and the date of the victory on it.   After the war he returned this fabric to the pilot, a Lt. Wanamaker and the family donated it to the USAF Museum.   More fodder for my book, just one of the many interesting stories about Ernst Udet and his WWI Service.   He survived the war and became quite a celebrity in Germany and in the USA, befriending his former opponents and other aviation pioneers like Charles Lindbergh.   Moving on to the “golden age” of aviation in the 20s and 30s, the collection contains some one of a kind remaining samples of significant aircraft.   I was very excited to see these aircraft. The P-26 Peashooter was an early fighter of the USAAF and during the 30s carried some very colorful markings.   This little fighter served right up until the beginning of WWII in the pacific and were exported to a number of countries.   Wow, I was really getting worked up over theses rare aircraft and I was only in the first main gallery.   In the WWII Hangar, a huge building that housed many great aircraft I was drawn to one of the most historically significant planes in the museums I would be visiting, namely, the  B-29 “Bockscar” that dropped the second Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki Japan to end WWII.   On this trip I was in the presence of both of the Atomic aircraft  when I visited the NASM in Washington which houses the “Enola Gay”.   The “rush” of history was more than I could stand and this aircraft moved me to tears for its major historical significance.    This of course was totally lost on my Wife and she did not have the same experience at looking at this airplane.    Maybe I’m just that much of a Geek…

I am not able to post as many of the photos as I would like, but indulge me for a couple more for this installment of the Dream Vacation.   There were so many important aircraft on display that I ended up taking hundreds of digital images.   I am still sorting through the 1600 or so pictures and I will update them onto my Flicker account and make them available through the Reaching Lifelong Goals.com blog.   The aircraft of the 1950s are also an area of interest to me and I was happy to see some of my favorites in this section of the collection.   One of the last few remaining B-36 Peacemaker Bombers is on display.   This aircraft is incredible.  Six props and 4 jet engines to get this behemoth into the air!   I was only able to get a nose shot!

The spaceflight collection of the museum was also a treat, seeing one of the Apollo capsules (Apollo 15 I think…) that had actually been to the moon and back was a very moving sight as well.   Being a child of the 60s, I watched the NASA flights and built all the Revell models of the Mercury, Gemini and Moon landing Apollo spacecraft.   To actually stand in the presence of one of the command modules that went to the moon was truly moving, again, I was a blubbering fool.    I guess history gets to me more than most folks, as I have been waiting 35 years to reach a lifelong goal of becoming History Major!  Tomorrow we will have another installment of the History Major Dream Vacation.   Washington DC!!

Being a non traditional student and a History Major is an interesting combination.   I’ve been around while history has been made, unlike some of my fellow classmates who were not even born when the Berlin Wall came down, or the Challenger Space Shuttle was lost.  Older students have a different perspective in a History class.  I find it very interesting how some of the younger students I come into contact with view history.   They do not look at events such as the JFK assassination as a person who was personally effected by it.  (Granted, I was only in the 2nd grade, but I still remember my parents being glued to the black and white TV and being very upset…)    Now, more often than not, my fellow classmates learned all “they needed to know” from the Oliver Stone film.   (These same kids are getting their current event news from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart…)

However, I digress,  my main topic here is a short history lesson about Red Fokkers.   My screen name on the Internet for a number of years now has been REDFOKKER.   This comes from my main interest in history, World War One Aviation.   I have chosen to specialize in one of the German Air Force pilots that just happened to fly Fokker airplanes painted RED.   Everyone has some knowledge about the “Red Baron” Manfred Von Richthofen who scored 80 victories before his death in 1918 (not by Snoopy…)    My focus of study in my History career will be on Germany’s second highest scoring ace ERNST UDET.

Ernst Udet (1896-1941) was a German fighter ace who achieved 62 victories during World War One.  Udet entered the German Army 1914 before becoming a fighter pilot.   He fought in Jastas 15, 37, 11 and 4 finally becoming the commander of JG 11 fighter squadron.   Ultimately being forced out of active combat in late September 1918 from injuries sustained in action, he survived the war and became quite character in the years before WWII.   He joined the Luftwaffe in 1935 and eventually became a General Officer in charge of aircraft development.   His life ended tragically as he “committed” suicide in 1941 over controversy surrounding Germany’s losses during the “Battle of Britain”.

Ernst Udet’s aircraft were painted red later in the war and all carried the marking “LO!” in honor of his girlfriend, Eleonore Zink.  The Fokker DVII was a very advanced fighter for it’s day.  It was the only single weapon that was spelled out to be destroyed in the Versaille Treaty ending the war.

There have been over 200 books written about the “Red Baron” Richthofen, but there have been very few about Ernst Udet.   His colorful career during and after WWI will make an interesting study for me in my History career.    My goal is to write the definitive text about Ernst Udet, his aircraft and his life.

My lifetime love of history has been a driving force in my Non Traditional Student journey.   Reaching lifelong goals is more than just a spiffy blog title.   I hope to post more blog entries that will chronicle my ongoing research over the next few years toward the publishing of my book.  History is my passion, and has been most of my life.   Now as a History Major at Oregon State University, I will finally be “reaching lifelong goals”.