- [Narrator] By 1942, vapor trails were over France.

The air war was underway.

These were the men who flew with death, the pilots, the navigators, the gunners.

Swiftly they streak toward their targets, mission, to destroy the enemy's ability to make war.

(artillery exploding) - I was 20 years old when I was flying combat, and we thought we could whip the world.

And by God we did it.

(uplifting music) (airplane engine buzzing) - My name is Evan Fagen, and I'm Chief Pilot of the museum.

My folks, Ron and Diane, started the museum in 2012.

Before the museum existed, my folks had a hangar where they had some of their fighters.

And at that time it was a lesser number, but people were always commenting that they should open up a museum, and one day they just decided, well, let's do it.

And that was in 2012 when the museum officially opened, I think it was July 1st.

And then, since then, it's just kind of grown and more buildings have been built.

My folks started this to have a place for people to come and see what the greatest generation did during World War II, both in manufacturing all these vehicles and airplanes but also what they did with these airplanes and all the equipment that they built during the war.

So the museum is really a tribute to the greatest generation and all those people who contributed to the war effort.

- [Narrator] American pilots gave a grand account of themselves in Europe.

(machine gun firing) They drove the enemy from the air.

Low altitude strafing.

(machine gun firing) Shattered enemy ground installations.

(engine buzzes) - [Fagen] Our air shows, we try to make 'em very unique in the fact that it's World War II only.

So we close the airport down to general aviation traffic.

General aviation is current modern aircraft that are built now, and we close the airfield off to those.

So it's only World War II aircraft that we invite.

It's only World War II aircraft that perform.

We don't have any, there's zero updated modern airplanes on the field.

It's a real feel of World War II, as close as you're gonna get, I guess, nowadays.

It's one of the only, truly only World War II air shows in the world.

(uplifting music) Ray Fagen was my grandpa during World War II.

He served in the Fourth Infantry, and the scene behind us shows the Higgins boats landing on Utah Beach.

That's the depiction of what we're trying to represent here, and my grandpa is on the landing craft here.

He fought in World War II.

He was a really good guy.

He loved aviation, and he's one of the veterans who did not really talk about his experiences.

Unfortunately, my grandpa passed away before this was open, but he was a big inspiration for my folks to open this, to share their stories and to honor the greatest generation.

My grandpa fought from the Normandy invasion through the liberation of Paris, the Battle of the Bulge.

And he had a really rough time.

And after the war, to help counter some of the war fatigue and stress, shell shock is what they called it back then, he got his pilot's license at the recommendation of a military doctor, and he got it through the GI Bill and a Stearman, which is a World War II trainer.

And that was my grandpa's way of coping with shell shock for a lot of the earlier part of his life, and he carried the love of aviation all the way through over 50 years.

And that got my dad started in aviation, got our whole family started in it.

(uplifting music) Having these artifacts that people can actually look at, touch and see the size of them and the magnitude really puts a personal connection to it so they can understand a little more about whatever that piece might be.

Looking at 'em as a war machine and also looking at 'em from the standpoint of seeing how technically advanced they were for the 1940s, because the technology that was produced was really amazing.

If you go from, you know, 40 years earlier with the beginning of flight to these World War II fighters and bombers, there's a lot of technology involved.

People can see firsthand how impressive these machines are, whether it's a tank or a P-51 Mustang.

(uplifting music) The greatest generation did so much, not only in the fighting but in the production and manufacturing.

I don't think it's a feat that's ever been matched as far as the quantity and stopping production of regular products.

Most factories were building and shifting strictly to the war effort and remanufacturing guns or airplanes or engines.

But a lot of the US manufacturers did just that.

They stopped production on everything and put all their efforts on the war effort and producing whatever they could do to help.

And, in, you know, the greatest generation, the 18-year-olds to lower 20s really stopped their lives to fight for the country, and a lot of people came forward and volunteered and went all over the world, wherever they could, to help.

(bomb explodes) - [Narrator] Men from the green hills of New England, the sun-baked plains of the Middle West, the cotton fields of the South, the close-packed streets of Manhattan, Chicago, the teeming factories of Detroit, Los Angeles, the endless stretching distances of the southwest, men from the hills and from the plains, from the villages and from the cities.

Now veteran fighting men.

Yet two years ago, many had never fired a gun or seen the ocean or been off the ground.

(artillery exploding) Americans, fighting for their country while half a world away from it, fighting for their country and for more than their country, fighting for an idea.

The idea bigger than the country.

- Well, I graduated from high school in 1944, and almost all of the classmates, even the gals, we all knew we were going in the service.

So many, many of the guys enlisted in the Navy, 'cause if you got drafted you would be just a marching soldier.

And seven of my lady, girl classmates went to a nursing school in Mitchell, South Dakota, and they all became RNs.

But it was through the draft.

- I asked for a deferment to finish my junior year in high school.

I was granted that.

And then on the 13th of June, I went to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and I was inducted into the service there.

And the first time I had ever been in a city larger than Mankato.

- Well, before the war, I lived on a farm.

I enlisted when I was 17.

And before that was just living on a farm.

That was all.

I had some jobs, of course, like everybody else.

I went to ag school at the West Central School of Agriculture in Morris.

That's where I went to high school at.

And I went straight from there.

I enlisted in the Navy and went straight to bootcamp.

- A lot of the people that we talked to, a lot of the veterans say, well, you just did it.

They don't consider themselves heroes or patriotic really.

They just said, you just did it.

It was just natural.

And they say anybody would do it.

I'm not sure nowadays if that's the case, but they just said it was just a natural instinct.

"We just had to help."

- I went to school at a one-room school country school in, around Kenyon.

Graduated from high school, joined the Marine Corps.

I was a tank driver.

I drove amphibian tanks.

We were mostly stationed in the South Pacific, or in the Pacific Theater.

That's where I went to bootcamp.

Three months at tank training school at Jack's Farm down in San Diego.

And then we went overseas, and we were there until November, 1945.

We usually went ahead of the infantry, and on the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima.

We went in with the different divisions.

I was at the Second Division on Saipan.

I was the Fourth Division on Tinian, and I was the Fifth Division on Iwo Jima.

Well, the first thing we did was, with our tank, we got our tanks shot out from under us.

The first thing on Saipan, that is, we'd been on beach about, oh, two or three minutes, and I heard, "Abandon tank."

I couldn't believe it.

But we got hit that time.

Then we got hit on Tinian.

We got hit on Iwo Jima.

The guy got, he didn't get killed.

The one on Saipan, our CP operator, got killed.

On Tinian, the guy got his, he got shot at, ammunition passer got hit.

Let's see, on Iwo, the loader got hit, and he refused to be evacuated.

So he got the Bronze Star.

- Peleliu sticks in my mind the most because when we went into Peleliu, we made Cape Gloucester at New Britain first.

And then we went to an island called Pavuvu for a staging area.

And there was nothing there but rotten coconuts and coconut palm fronds.

And we had to clean all that stuff up.

And that was overrun with rats and land crabs.

From Pavuvu, then we went up to Peleliu, and on onboard ship the captain of our outfit, the outfit I was in, he told us how many Marines were, or how many Japs were supposedly on Peleliu.

and how many Marines were going ashore.

He said you had a choice to make.

"There isn't room for all of us on that island," 'cause the island was two and a half miles wide and five and a half miles long is all there was.

And he said, "You're gonna have to make up your mind who stays."

So we knew what we were doing.

They told us when we went in, figured a week to 10 days.

We were there for six weeks of the worst combat we ever had.

- [Fagen] The airplane behind us a P-38, my grandpa did tell a story about how a P-38, after the D-Day invasion, I don't remember how many days, but they were pinned down and two P-38s came out of the clouds and strafed the entire German group that was advancing on him and wiped them all out.

And he said that's the only reason he survived that was a P-38.

So he always had a special place in his heart for that airplane.

So aviation's always been a huge love with my Grandpa Ray.

So it was nice to combine his military service with his passion, which was aviation.

(inspirational music) Most air shows have World War II aircraft, but not the volume that we have here, and also the fact that it's strictly World War II.

But it also allows these World War II veterans to come back and kind of get 'em back in their element.

We like to give 'em a feel of the 1940s as much as we can.

We have re-enactors here.

We have ground vehicles here, driving around operating.

We have camps set up so people can walk around and see how these camps were set up in World War II with the re-enacters there, the tents set up, the field kitchens, all of that stuff.

And then of course, the sound of the day is World War II aircraft, whether it's radial engines or Merlin engines, you know, they hear the real sound of these aircraft all day long, and it's not interrupted with any modern technology or jets.

It's unique in the fact that we feel we give the World War II veterans a peek to their past and they can kinda be in their element and show their families what things were like and how things sounded and operated.

We hope during the air show that it brings them joy in seeing that their generation's contributions are still active and alive today, and that people haven't forgot about what they've done.

And they can see pieces of equipment from their war days in front of them still active today, still vibrant.

- I think this is fantastic.

I mean, just being able to see these airplanes and the condition that they're in.

I mean, it's like when you get to go see a Model T Ford that was built before I was born, and it's drivable, looks brand-new, that people can do that sort of thing, because not everybody can do this.

These are special people that spend all of these hours putting these things back together.

It's incredible.

- It's fun to fly these World War II aircraft just because they're all uniquely different.

But I always enjoy seeing aircraft fly that aren't commonly seen.

You know, some of those airplanes that were at the last air shows, like a Catalina, which is a flying boat that was used to rescue downed pilots.

It's a big, different, weird-looking airplane, but its history was really neat.

They did a lot of different things.

Submarine patrol, they patrolled the East coast from the Nazi U-boats.

- The sea planes is something, I guess they're gonna bring in the PBY today is way it sounds.

But I never flew one with wheels on.

With those ones we flew, we'd taxi up to the ramp, and the guys had come out with wheels, you know, just shaft and the wheels stuck in there somewhere, I guess.

I never had to do it, but anyway, then they'd pull it out of the water with the tractor, but this is gonna be different.

I know they had 'em with wheels on, but we never got to fly them.

- Every air show we try to bring unique airplanes that aren't real visible to the public often, or at least in the Midwest.

Some of the airplanes we have here that are very unique is our Hellcat, our Japanese Zero, the P-38 and the Hell Diver that we're restoring now.

- [Friberg] I worked on the Hellcat airplane, and I met the guy that's going to fly that Hellcat, and that plane starts with a shotgun shell.

And, you know, we had to turn the prop over two or three times and then give the pilot the high sign to fire.

Sometimes it started, sometimes it didn't.

So if a starter went bad, we had to replace it, and then if it had oil leaks or anything, we would repair the oil leaks.

So that's about all we did.

- [Hendricks] I love the P-51.

They were a great airplane.

P-51, P-38s and even Piper Cubs, because we had Piper Cubs that did scouting for the infantry, and they could pick out the range, for artillery range, and pick out groups of Japanese.

And they would fly real low , risk their lives just for us.

- A lot of these people can relate to something here.

We're not always able to bring the exact thing that they were involved with to them.

But a lot of times when a veteran comes in, no matter who they are, what they did, they can connect with a piece of it and share with their family what their piece of the war effort was.

You know, we've had people here all the way from, you know, triple aces to cooks aboard ships, and everybody has talked about their piece of it.

And the fun thing is seeing the connection they have here with their past.

It opens up a lot of these World War II veterans that day to tell their story and share with people and be proud of what they did and be able to relate to areas that they helped contribute to.

We also have a USO building where we host all the World War II veterans and families.

And that's also unique to a lot of air shows.

And the fact that we kind of have an area designated for them.

And then we also do interviews in front of the crowd.

So, all of the spectators can hear these World War II folks talk about their experiences, which has been pretty cool.

- I was a wing man at this particular mission, and we were strafing marshaling yards pretty far into Germany.

And my element leader was John I.

Brown.

And he had been in the RAF, and he had a motto.

He said, "Fight and run away.

Live to fight another day."

So, about 15 minutes early, I guess, he and I left and headed back home, and on the way we were at 15,000 feet and I saw a bogey.

A bogey's an unidentified aircraft, I'm sure everybody knows, down below, and it was flying about maybe 1,500 feet above the ground.

I called it out and John said, "I can't see it.

Check it out and I'll cover you."

I said, "That's all you need."

So I dove and I was indicating about 490 miles an hour in my P-47 D model, which we loved.

And I saw the ME-262.

So I shot in front of him thinking to alert him so he'd slow down, and then I hit water injection.

I gained a little bit, but if he hadn't have turned back towards his airfield to lead me over his airfield, that was his plan, which he did succeed doing.

And so I cut inside of him, I got right behind him, and I was about as close as here to that hangar there when I finally, I only had two inboard guns firing, 'cause the other outboard guns were out of ammunition.

And I hit him and he went into the ground, and we were about, say, a hundred or 200 feet above the ground when that happened.

And we were right over this German airfield, and they broke up shooting at me, and they hit my airplane pretty good.

And one of the shots did hit my rudder.

So I had no rudder control coming back.

But I pulled up and John said, "Get back down."

So I got back down and came cutting the grass across the field till I got out so I could pull up.

And then we headed back.

And I'd already shot a 109 before, but I told my crew chief, George Smith, said, "If I get a victory I'll do a barrel roll," victory roll, or whatever you wanna call it.

So I came in, I said, no, without a rudder I'll just come straight in and land, and that's what happened.

- The most memorable day would be when they raised the flag on Iwo Jima.

I was a half a mile from Mount Surabachi, and I did not actually see them raise the flag, but there was so much gunfire and so much, so much action.

I turned around and I saw the flag up on Mount Surabachi, and there it was.

That is the most memorable day, I think.

- [Narrator] Remember the Memphis Belle?

The celebrated lady from Tennessee survived many a perilous assignment, returning homes scarred, but happy and proud to be back.

- One of my very best friends, we served on Iwo Jima together.

He was in the Ninth Marines, I was in the Third Marines.

But he had it really tough.

All of the noncoms, all the enlisted men, the officers were dead.

He led the group out of the trap they were in.

He got the Silver Star for that.

When he got home, his sister called me up.

"Bob," she says, "You gotta tell what your feelings are about Andy," her brother.

I says, "Well, he was a nervous wreck after the war," when I visited him before we were discharged.

"Try to get help from the government if you can.

That's what I'm working on," she said, "And I needed you as a witness."

And I said, "That'll be fine."

About two weeks later, I get a letter from her.

He took his own life.

So, you know, let's remember those that not only died in the war but those that die every day because they can't get along in civilian life now.

They have nightmares.

Those are the people we need to help today.

- It's very important now in this time to continue getting these veterans out here to speak and talk because we're losing 180 veterans, World War II veterans die per day.

And the 2022 Veterans Affairs Office reported there's only 167,000 United States World War II veterans alive out of 16 million that served.

So the numbers are really dwindling, and in 10 years' time, there's not gonna be, you know, there'll be a handful of people that are still able to talk and tell their stories.

The commitment to serve was so great at that time, and it was a unified thought.

It was all these people wanted to contribute, and they put their lives on hold to do that.

- I was 18 when I went in, and on the way home by the, no, by the Bermuda.

My birthday's on Christmas day, and I was out on the deck in my shorts.

I had never been in such a place before at Christmas.

And that day I was 21.

I was legal to vote and I could buy a beer.

- [Interviewer] And you were on your way out.

- On my way home.

- Wow.

- [Boldt] On New Year's Day, I saw the Statue of Liberty, 1946.

(uplifting music)