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VOL. 5/ISSUE 17
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
Warbirds to take flight
Déjà vu? 19th president shares parallels with latest one Mary Kemper STAFF WRITER
Patrick McCallister
mkemper@veteranvoiceweekly.com
FOR VETERAN VOICE
pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com
The Thunderbirds are roaring in for the TICO Warbirds 2017 Airshow — March 10 to 12. “They will fly every afternoon, Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Ron Davis, public relations officer for the annual show, said. The airshow will be at the Space Coast Regional Airport, 355 Golden Knights Blvd., Titusville. The Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum hosts it. This is its 40th year. “Hard to believe that we’ve been doing it this long,” Davis said. The Thunderbirds won’t be the only military elite in town for the show. The U.S. Special Operations Command Parachute Team, the Para-Commandos, will drop in. The Navy’s Strike Fighter Squadron 106’s F/A-18C Hornet TAC DEMO Team will put some boom in the room, too. Patrick Air Force Base will show up with the 920th Rescue Wing’s Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk. Along with the military elite, some former military and military history elite will be at the Warbirds. Members of Orlando’s Phantom Airborne Brigade will jump from the Tico Belle, the Valeant Air Command’s Douglas C-47 Skytrain. The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation’s Sky Soldier Cobra Demonstration Team will display their fancy aerial footwork at the show. The Class of 45 — Jim Tobul and Scott Yoak — will show why the Vought F4U Corsair and North American P-51 Mustang are two of the most storied airplanes. The show will have exciting civilian acts.
See WARBIRDS page 11
He lost the popular vote, and barely squeaked by in the Electoral College. Democrats hated him, and he was mistrusted by a sizable percentage of his fellow Republicans. One of his main goals was to reform and streamline the Civil Service. Sound familiar? No, not the 45th president, Donald Trump, but the 19th, Rutherford B. Hayes. He was elected in 1877, at a time when the Civil War was still fresh in memory. It was still the Reconstruction Era, and still politically turbulent. Born Oct. 4, 1822, Hayes hailed from Delaware, Ohio. He moved to Cincinnati, where he practiced law, in 1850, and married the former Lucy Webb. His law practice was notable for his successfully arguing one of the first insanity defenses against murder, involving a woman who would be committed to an institution rather than be hanged. A staunch abolitionist, Hayes defended numerous escaped slaves, which he said he found “personally gratifying.” His political career began when he successfully ran for a judgeship, and later city solicitor. Source: Wikimedia Commons When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Army as a Former general and 19th president of the United States Rutherford B. commissioned officer. Hayes.
Battlefield gallantry Hayes served in the 23rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and soon gained the rank of major. (Also in his unit was an enlisted soldier, William McKinley, who would go on to become president as well.)
Hayes’ earliest encounters with the Confederates began with skirmishes in western Virginia. He fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, where he was shot through his left arm. He tied a tourniquet on the wound and continued to lead his troops. Hayes spent the rest of
the war fighting in present-day West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, many times routing units of the Confederacy. Ulysses S. Grant himself said, “his conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry as
See HAYES page 9