U.S. Army Capt. James Page, the 101st Airborne
Division historian with the Don F. Pratt Museum
here, assisted with the historical and technical
information, and the 19th ASOS team is providing
the manpower. The work will take approximately
10 days with a total of 500 man-hours to restore
the aircraft. The Airmen started with power
washing the aircraft before moving onto the
detail work of repainting the invasion stripes,
stars and bars, and other historical markings.
"We are starting with all the historical
markings to be sure they are all in the right
place when the project is completed," said
Master Sgt. Scott McCoy, the first sergeant for
the 19th ASOS, an aircraft structural maintainer
and project lead for the 19th ASOS. "If we
sanded everything off first, we couldn't ensure
it would be accurate."
Thankfully for the teams, the aircraft's history
is well recorded. The C-47 was built in 1942 by
the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach,
Calif., and was later assigned to the 92nd Troop
Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group,
53rd Troop Carrier Wing, 9th Troop Carrier
Command at Baer Field, Indianapolis, Ind. In
February 1944, the aircraft was flown to Europe
and initially stationed in Balderton, England.
Eventually the aircraft was moved to Upottery,
England.
Aircraft 42-100828 participated in the invasion
of Normandy on D-Day. The aircraft was part of a
45-plane serial and had the mission of dropping
paratroopers from the 506th Parachute Infantry
Regiment, now known as the 4th Brigade Combat
Team, "Currahees," into Drop Zone "C" at J+30,
roughly 1:15 a.m. June 6, 1944.
|