Bill Patterson - Golf and the B-17 Bomber.
Last Monday our Clembake Senior golf group played at the Forest Hills course in Augusta Georgia. Holes numbers 1 and 2 run close to Wrightsboro Road. Across the road a runway of Daniel Field airport exists. As my foursome was playing one of these holes I noticed an unusual aircraft coming at us with its nose down and its wheels down. The sound of its four propeller engines and its shape told me that this was a B-17 Flying Fortress and it was going to pass directly over us at only about 200 feet! I was totally surprised as I did not know the B-17 would be in the area. We stopped our play and watched as the beautiful craft descended and dropped out of our sight. We waved at the crew and they could probably see us as the plane was so low and we were in an open area. We continued our round and watched the bomber take off and land several times more during the day. It was making short runs around the Augusta area.
As a life-long Augusta area resident, I realized that much history was repeating itself that day. During World War II Forest Hills golf course, Daniel Field and the B-17 saw each other often. The grouping then was very serious. The B-17 was training to drop real bombs on our enemies. The golf course and air field did what they could to serve our military.
As a child with some memories I remember a squadron of what I think were P-38 Lightnings flying over Broad Street near where we lived. The roar of their powerful engines echoed among the concrete buildings and was unforgetable. I believe this memory formed in about 1947 after the war had ended and our guys had come home. I don't know where the planes were going but I won't forget them. My family told me the planes and the men in them had done special work.
Now I know a few men who flew in the B-17 and P-38 when they were doing special work in World War II. These men treat me respectfully. The Free World and I can never thank them enough for what they did.
The B-17 Flying Fortress will always remind me of the time our country so needed such men and machines. Thank God we had them.
The attached photo is of the Liberty Belle, the same aircraft we saw from the golf course. Over 12,000 of these planes were built; only about 14 are flying today.