An 8mm black and white Bell and Howell movie camera whirred. Dad was filming a commercial version of the DC-3 preparing for take off from Philadelphia airport. It was the mid-fifties and I watched the plane by my Dad’s side from an observation deck.

He took me there often. His love of airplanes became my love of airplanes.

Somehow the DC-3 held me with it’s simple majesty of line, size and form. Nose pointing up, sturdy “legs”, dual engines proudly challenging the sky.

The engines erupted and the plane moved out of my sight but not out of my soul.

Around the age of 54 my wife bought me the DC–3 United version. While I still track them down at airshows, museums and airports, and side roads across America, I can always simply reach to the wooden model DC-3 on the shelf in my living room.

With it in my hands, I can relive the wonder of that day with my father, dream of riding in one someday, and simply appreciate the grace and beauty of spectacularly unique airplane.

- Paul Blundin
Brookhave, PA

The V-22 Osprey, built by Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., performed superbly in its first combat missions with the US Marines, having flown in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Paul Rock, the commander of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, praised the hybrid helicopter-airplanes and the pilots who flew them.  Rock said:

“We did the full spectrum of what the aircraft was meant to do.  It was very satisfying to see how well it performed.”

The Osprey’s design allows it to fly quickly like a normal airplane then switch to helicopter mode to land and has proven its worth on the two occasions it came under fire.  Lt. Gen. George Trautman III, the Marine Corps deputy commandant for aviation said the machines logged less than a third of the repair time required to keep Vietnam-era CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters in the air.  Some technical problems arise during the deployment, such as the failure of electrical distribution systems for the sensors on a number of Ospreys in a short period.

Gen. Trautman called the deployment a test but not “the final exam.”  He said the Air Force is “leaning forward” in plans to use a modified version of the Osprey, which mat include the addition of a belly-mounted turret to give the aircraft a better field of fire.

Col. Rock, when asked about the lack of a turret-mounted weapon on the Marine variant, he quipped, “Never ask a Marine if he wants more guns on his airplane.  More guns is good.”

In April 1945, Hitler together with wife Eva Braun moved into the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin. Hitler held daily briefings with his generals and reports of the unstoppable Soviet into Berlin in his quarters. He issued frantic orders to defend Berlin with armies that were already wiped out or were making a hasty retreat westward to surrender to the Americans.

On April 22, Hitler let loose of hysteria; shrieking denunciation of the Army and the “universal treason, corruption, lies and failures” of those who deserted him. Hitler then admits his Reich was a failure and now there was nothing left to do but stay in Berlin and fight ‘til the end.

Before midnight of April 29, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun in a brief civil ceremony and conducted a celebration in his private suit. By the afternoon of April 29, Soviet ground forces were about a mile away from the Fuhrerbunker. Inside the bunker the last news from the outside world told of the death of Mussolini.

At 2:30 in the morning of April 30, Hitler bid good byes to his staff members. At noon, Hitler attended to his last military situation conference and was told the Soviets were just a block away. At 2 pm, Hitler sat sown and had his last meal. Hitler and his wife went back in their private quarters while Bormann and Goebbels wait nearby.

A gunshot was heard at 3 pm and at 3:30; Bormann and Goebbels entered and found the body of Hitler on the sofa dripping with blood from a gunshot to his right temple while his wife Eva Braun had died from swallowing poison.

As part of an Earth Day community relations project, sailors of USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) read books to children and helped plant flower seeds at Barnes and Noble in Newport News this past April 24.

The sailors read books about plants, trees and earth stewardship to local kids, and discussed some of the Navy’s environmentally friendly recycling policies and procedures. They also helped the children plant seeds that they could take to grow at home.

Carl Vinson sailors participate in various community relations projects throughout the year, with many aimed at helping and mentoring children in the Hampton Roads area. Earth Day was just another opportunity to volunteer their services.

“The kids really enjoyed their time with the sailors,” Barnes and Noble associate Joann Arnold said. “They had fun and responded very well to all of the interaction taking place, and the Navy showed a really good presence in the community.”