Gray Eagles P51

[Walt's Daughter]

First off thanks a million, and secondly I DID need to visit the kleenex box.

 

Thought I would place some text here from the sight though, because people tend to pass links by for lack of description.

 

It was a very touching film, and their reason for doing this for their grandfather, is the same reason I am doing my documentary for my father and his buddies. They will never be forgotten.

 

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In the six-plus decades since the beginning of World War II, its remnants, like the withering memories of those who lived it have become the province of historians. For most of us, the past is little more than a fading echo, muddled in the sensory overload of a 21st Century world.

 

In our ever-accelerating daily lives fueled by increasing technology, the American collective consciousness has lost sight of the past and set its sights on unlocking the doors that will become our future. The humble heroes who participated in the war effort are reticent to reminisce. Thus, so very little has endured from that age to this.

 

Perhaps that is why a fighter plane, a technological hero in its time, the North American P-51 Mustang has achieved iconic status. Six decades and three generations since it rolled off the assembly lines in Los Angeles and Dallas, the Mustang has exceeded the hopes and expectations of the men who designed it and the pilots who flew it into harm’s way. And it has fired the imagination of those, both young and old, who have ever dreamed of flight.

 

So the question persists: “Why is the Mustang considered one of the greatest fighter planes in history and why, sixty years after it was born, does it continue to beguile us?â€

 

While there were nearly 16,000 Mustangs built only 200 remain worldwide and nearly 100 gathered at an unprecedented event. "The Gathering of Mustangs and Legends" event, held at Rickenbacker Field in Columbus, Ohio in September 2007, was designed to pay tribute to the heros and the planes from another time.

 

“Gray Eagles†is the story of a humble WWII Mustang ace, his grandchildren and the bond that is formed when history comes alive all set against the backdrop of one of the most admired aircraft in history and the pilots who flew her.

 

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The Mustang survived the War and was committed to the history books and to our memories. What’s past is truly prologue and the Mustang remains the fighter by which all other fighters built since World War II are measured. It’s birth, death and re-birth are a striking testament to the men who built her and to the boys who flew her into harm’s way.

 

With less than 200 Mustangs remaining, it falls to another younger generation, this new band of brothers, the descendents, the pilots and future pilots, to write the next chapter in the Mustang’s transcendent history, as they fly in the wake of giants.

 

In truth, those stories did more than that. Woods went on to become an accomplished pilot and restored a tired old Mustang, which he painted identically to the Mustang Brooks flew in Europe, “Februaryâ€. It would become Woods’ homage to a man who ignited his desire for flight and helped fuel his passion for history.

 

Set against the backdrop of the “Gathering of Mustangs and Legendsâ€, “Gray Eagles†tells the story of Jim Brooks and his grandchildren Jim, Maura and Virginia Smith. Since the restoration of Woods’ Mustang, “Februaryâ€, Jim’s grandchildren have grown to appreciate more deeply their grandfather’s contributions to their generation. In a quiet epiphany young Jim’s eyes light up when he realizes what his grandfather accomplished in WWII. Hopefully the 26-year old Smith and his sisters will become the next keepers of the flame of this family’s rich aviation history.

 

Flying as a passenger in the backseat of Woods’ Mustang and using air-to-air photography, we filmed young Jim as he experienced flying with Woods in his grandfather’s Mustang. The in-flight conversations between Woods and Smith create a fitting segue to more archival wartimefootage of a youthful Jim Brooks at war in Europe in the fighter plane that made him feel invincible against his foes. The raw wartime photos and films of the ace and the Mustang in their prime will add depth and visual impact to an already compelling narrative.