VINTAGE AIRCRAFT TAKES WORLD WAR II VET ACROSS NORTH TEXAS, BACK IN TIME

 Sonny Kemble had no trouble remembering the last time he flew in a B-17. That was D-Day, June 6, 1944.

And then again on Wednesday.

"I don't know if I'm nervous or excited," he said just before we climbed aboard the flying World War II relic. 
"Probably some of both."

Back on that D-Day flight, a German anti-aircraft rocket hit his Flying Fortress, knocking out an engine.
Wednesday's flight from Denton to Arlington encountered no enemy fire. "And I like that a whole lot better," 
85-year-old Kemble said with a big grin.

His flights over Europe were a matter of patriotic duty. The flight this week was more like an apple for the teacher – 
a gift of respect and gratitude.

After the war, Kemble taught and coached in the Dallas Independent School District for 33 years. And it was one of 
his former football boys who arranged the flight.  Gail Douglas of DeSoto played for Coach Kemble back on the '58 
Rusk Junior High team that went to the city championship. "I always remembered and admired him," Douglas said. "So 
about 15 years ago, I got back in touch with him."

Douglas is a student of World War II history. And his respect for his old coach deepened even more when he learned 
of Kemble's military service as a B-17 tail gunner.  Douglas recently discovered that the Wings of Freedom tour of World 
War II planes was coming to the Dallas area. He began to inquire on behalf of his old coach.

Normally it takes a $425 donation to fly on one of the vintage bombers. But Douglas learned that when the planes are 
being moved from one airport to the next, old crew members sometimes get to tag along.  Journalists qualify for the same 
deal, so I got the privilege of buckling in beside Kemble as, for the first time in almost 65 years, he heard those B-17 
engines roar to life.

"I'm ready to get off the ground," he said to me above the roar.  Back in June of '44, Kemble had been thrilled to get back 
down on the ground to stay. His 10-man crew had been obligated to fly 28 missions. D-Day happened to be their final one.
"It was such a relief that it was over," he said.

It was something of a miracle they were still around. His group was the first to fly a daylight bombing run over Berlin. Of the 
26 planes in his unit that went out that day, only three returned.

"Think of it," Douglas said. "He had breakfast with 260 men that morning. He had dinner with 30 that night."

Kemble well remembers the anti-aircraft fire they encountered. "We got over Berlin, and the flak was so thick you could get 
out and walk on it," he said. "It was solid."  On returning from another mission, Kemble squeezed out of his tiny gun compartment 
and discovered that a large chunk of the plane's tail had been shot away just above his head.

In contrast to all that, Wednesday's flight was a lark. Once airborne, we were free to roam the plane.  Ironically, only the tail 
gunner's compartment was off-limits. But Kemble had no desire to squeeze back into that space. Just thinking of it now makes 
him claustrophobic.

He seemed to most enjoy the expansive view from the other end of the plane, up in the bombardier's nose bubble.  He also 
seemed happy, satisfied somehow, when the flight was over.

Standing on the tarmac in Arlington, looking back over the old B-17 a last time, he said, "I'm glad I did it. Now I can say I got 
back on one. I never thought I would."