By Kris Nuss
For The Sidney Daily News
Centerpoint Energy Dayton Air Show welcomes back Darryl Fisher and his Dream Flight team to both give veterans rides in his 1940 Boeing Stearman Bi-Plane and to introduce his new venture, the Legacy Airbase which is a museum you didn’t know you needed.
The Legacy Airbase based in Dayton, Nevada will recreate a WW2 styled airbase which will compliment Dream Flights, a program that provides no cost rides to veterans in his fleet of Stearmans. The base will eventually include a WW2 era watch tower, working mess hall, barracks, and hanger. WW2 training aircraft and a fighter will be included, such as the Boeing Stearman, the North American AT-6 Texan (advanced trainer), and a P-51 Mustang (fighter). But wait, there’s more. Plans will include a tank, a 1942 Jeep, military motorcycle with side car, and other vehicles. But wait, it gets even better.
Unlike what we see at normal museums, the Legacy Airbase will allow veterans, their families, and the public to interact with…everything. Fisher wants to preserve our military history and the stories interwoven within our past. He will let you touch and leave a fingerprint or two on these glorious machines. Everything will be operational. Through the goal of protecting and preserving our veterans’ past, he’s giving us all the opportunity to touch, smell, and feel what our fathers, uncles, and grandpas encountered during their tour of duty in a pivotal shift in world history. Our experiences at this new museum will obviously be far tamer than our ancestors, but it’s vital that we at least know and understand a fraction of what so many did on our behalf. No snipers will be shooting at you while you tool around in the Jeep, and no ME-109’s, FW-190’s or Zeros will be waiting to ambush us like in the distant past.
When Dream Flights began (formerly named Ageless Aviation) Fisher was the first pilot, and his friend Paul Bodenhammer Jr- whose father was a B-17 and B-29 pilot- was his first crew chief. Paul noticed that the Dream Flighters would donate memorabilia to them-to the point where Fisher has a hanger full of items but no place to share their stories. Thus, the seed was planted to create a living history museum. They also noted that they weren’t doing anything for the younger veterans. The Dream Flighters are all elderly, most in assisted living, and it was brought to their attention that they were inadvertently ignoring a growing segment of our veterans. The plans are to continue to give older veterans rides in the biplane, while the younger can fly in the AT-6.
Conceived in 2015, the Legacy Airbase is different from Dream Flights, but the mission overlaps; honoring veterans, preserving history, and giving back. It will also accept donated memorabilia and will to the best of their ability, honor them by displaying. For the Korean War hanger, they will have a Bird Dog (liaison and observation aircraft), a T-28 (radial engine military trainer), and a tank and Jeep. In the Vietnam hanger, they hope to have a Huey and perhaps a Skyraider, an O-2 Skymaster(replacement for the O-1 Bird Dog for tactical air support). Ideally, veterans will be able to choose what to ride in during specified flight dates. The land set aside for the project had to be re-zoned to accommodate a hotel and restaurant, as an attachment to the airbase.
Why create a replica airbase? The expense, the permits, the insurance, the hassle. Because there’s power in bringing veterans together. Most museums have the ropes up and you’re not allowed to touch. The Legacy Airbase will pull the veterans together for a full immersion experience. And while everyone might not want to fly, they can still sit in the planes. They can still touch. They can compare notes with their brothers in arms in a freeing atmosphere to explore as they see fit. Now enter a casual reporter who loves Warbirds, but is hesitant to touch for fear of marking up a treasure. I mentioned while getting into the AT-6 how I absolutely hated stepping on the seat (Catholic Guilt, no jumping on the couch mentality), Darryl insisted that he has a different philosophy; yeah, he bought this airplane, but it’s not his- he’s the custodian. It’s the American people’s airplane. It’s the veteran’s airplane. Now we have to treat it right, we can’t tear it up, but he can and did make that investment for other people’s experience.
In 2021, Sidney, Ohio veterans Frank Thaman, Carl Zimmerman, Bill Deam, and Norris Cromes were flown over Urbana skies by the Dream Flights team. With the passing of just a few short years they are sadly gone now. But, they had a day of sharing stories, being pampered, and having fun because it’s never too late, and you’re not too old.
“If it’s important to them, it’s important to me,” Darryl insists. The comment was made in reference to the memorabilia that is given to him, but yet it seems to be cemented in the attitude of the Legacy Airbase and Dream Flights. You can clearly see this devotion in him and his team who work so hard to show how much they appreciate our veterans. Our country’s defenders are slipping away, just like time, and we need to preserve our military veteran’s stories and experiences before it’s too late.
