Several hundred people are expected to take part in the festivities this Thursday and Friday when a World War II-era warplane, making an historic Trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Europe to take part in a reenactment of D-Day 70 years later, makes the Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle its first stop.
Among the attendees will be several guests of honor — members of the appropriately named “Greatest Generation” — who live in The County and have a special connection to the Douglas C-47 aircraft and the events that occurred seven decades ago. Their numbers are diminishing, and those who are still with us are either approaching 90 or have already reached that milestone. The return of the C-47 to the skies of Aroostook and runway of the former Presque Isle Army Airfield has them reflecting on a time of tragedy and triumph and recalling what things were like in The County during the Second World War. As word gets out about the aircraft’s stopover, a growing number of these special veterans and civilians who helped in the war effort are reaching out to say they will be a part of the activity.
Several have agreed to be guests of honor at the arrival ceremony, which will take place shortly after the aircraft, named Whiskey 7, lands at the airport around 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The ceremony will be held at the General Aviation Terminal, where the C-47 will be positioned for community members to visit on-site after the ceremony.
Many will return the following morning, Friday, May 16, at 9 a.m. to see the warplane up-close and personal, and visit with the crew. The special viewing for area veterans and first responders will last about an hour. Both events are part of the “Return to Normandy” project, a world tribute to the fallen and surviving soldiers of WW II.
Just before 10 a.m., the members of the “Greatest Generation” in attendance will take part in a special procession of emergency vehicles that will drive them from the aircraft across the former airfield to the present day grounds of NMCC, where the large base hospital once sat. After stopping briefly, they will continue on to Presque Isle Middle School, where they will share their stories with seventh- and eighth-graders in an event called “A Conversation with the Greatest Generation.”
Those planning to take part in the activities include Heber Umphrey of Ashland, a former military paratrooper who jumped from C-47s during WW II; Joseph “Reed” Beaulieu of Van Buren, a military pilot who flew the C-47, among other aircraft; Donald Collins of Caribou, a WW II veteran, who landed at Normandy after the first wave of soldiers; Thelma Archer of Presque Isle, who during WW II helped build C-47s — a “Rosie The Riveter” at that time; Dorothy Bolstridge of Portage, who worked at the Presque Isle Army Airfield inspecting parachutes, many of which were used by soldiers to jump from the C-47; and Fay Fitzherbert of Mars Hill, a civilian who worked at the Presque Isle Army Airfield driving motor pool and recalls transporting injured soldiers to the base hospital from the C-47s after they landed.
The brief stop at NMCC will be especially meaningful for Fitzherbert, who will ride in the passenger seat of a Crown Critical Care Transport Ambulance at the front of the procession. He will be retracing the route he drove many times during WW II.
When a young Fitzherbert arrived for his evening shift as a civilian employee at the motor pool for the airfield on a December night in 1944, he never suspected he would end up responding to one of World War II’s deadliest, most bloody battles that would later become known as the Battle of the Bulge.
“About 105 planes came in. We were very busy,” he said, recalling the night when planes like Whiskey 7 brought in wounded soldiers fresh from the battlefields of the rugged, forested region of Ardennes.
Fitzherbert had just arrived for his shift on “the day the planes came in,” and he volunteered to drive the ambulances that night. When injured soldiers began pouring in, they worked as quickly as possible to transport them from the airplanes to the large hospital complex.
“By the time I got done at 11 p.m., the hospital was pretty well full,” recalled Fitzherbert.
But the planes kept coming.
“How long it went on after I don’t know,” he said.
The workers who were providing transport for the soldiers laid the wounded men anywhere they could find space in the hospital. Fitzherbert said in the rush to remove them from harm’s way on the battlefield, the soldiers hadn’t received any care prior to being boarded on planes and ushered out of Europe to Presque Isle. They arrived with no bandages, wounded — some still bleeding — and needing prompt medical attention.
The Battle of the Bulge was over in Ardennes, but the over 80,000 casualties had just begun arriving at military bases around the world. Approximately 19,000 men died during that fight.
Fitzherbert said he can’t recall much from the night, other than being very busy. He supposes that maybe some details are best forgotten.
A couple of weeks after the infamous night, however, Fitzherbert does recall a happier moment.
“Come Christmas time, there were still soldiers in the hospital. We got a caroling group together. They wouldn’t let us in the hospital, so we went around outside all the wings and sang real loud. We were told, ‘They can’t see you, but they can hear you.’ They enjoyed it,” he said.
Fitzherbert continued working at the PIAA for two or three years before transferring to Loring Air Base in Limestone, where he worked in a carpentry shop. He continued to live in Aroostook County and raised his family here.
The C-47 was frequently used to transport injured patients from the European Theater to Presque Isle. In effect, it was a critical care transport aircraft for soldiers.
In a nod to that which preceded them, emergency personnel from Crown CCT, a division of TAMC, will be greatly engaged in the activities. In addition to driving Fitzherbert from the C-47 to the “Conversation with the Greatest Generation” event at the Middle School, a Crown CCT ambulance will lead a procession of emergency vehicles in escorting Whiskey 7, after she lands, from the taxiway to the General Aviation Terminal for the ceremony Thursday evening.
In addition, one of Crown CCT’s ambulances used to transport patients and one of the two planes regularly used by the specially trained crew and operated/flown by Fresh Air, LLC to airlift patients from The County will be present during the Thursday festivities for the public to see and speak to the crew as they make their way to and from Whiskey 7. This will offer guests a unique opportunity to see the past and present side-by-side.
A full schedule of events related to Whiskey 7’s visit is posted on TAMC’s website, www.tamc.org, and on the airport’s website, www.flypresqueisle.com.
