FROM THE TIMES PICAYUNE
Keep 'em flying
An oilman from Lafayette has spirits soaring at the National WWII Museum with his donation of a vintage C47 airplane -- bought online.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
By Elizabeth Mullener
Staff writer
It isn't the way the average guy would choose to memorialize his wife. But then, Paul Hilliard isn't the average guy. He's an oilman from Lafayette, president of the Badger Oil Corp., a World War II veteran and sometimes just a mite eccentric.
So after Lulu, his wife of 34 years, died on Thanksgiving Day last year, Hilliard bought (what else?) a vintage C47 airplane and donated it to the National World War II Museum in her memory. And he bought it (where else?) on eBay.
"Yeah, I did," he says, laughing at his own folly. "I bought an obsolete airplane that I've only seen once."
But Martin K.A. Morgan, director of research at the museum, doesn't see anything the least bit foolish about it.
"Of all the C47s left in the world today, this is the most significant artifact there is," he says. "It has a unique and remarkable combat history. When I first read about it, I went out and confirmed some of its history and I thought, oh darn, this is the airplane we need."
Known affectionately as the Gooney Bird, the C47 was a workhorse of World War II and one of the most durable pieces of equipment ever manufactured. It wasn't a glamorous plane -- its top speed was 120 mph and it couldn't ascend more than 10,000 feet -- but it got the job done. Its fraternal twin, the DC3, later became the staple of the commercial aviation industry
The C47 was designed by the Douglas Aircraft Manufacturing Corp. and there were 10,000 of them used over the course of the war for transporting troops and cargo. Although they have been out of production since 1946, some are still flying today, particularly in Latin America.
Hilliard never flew in the plane he purchased, but he put in plenty of time in C47s when he was a radioman in the U.S. Marine Corps.
"They hauled you around the world in those things," he says. "It was a mule. It was tough, durable, reliable, slow and uncomfortable. Perfect for the military. You weren't supposed to be comfortable. Wars are not about comfort."
But in fact, Hilliard is a great admirer of the C-47 as a well-made piece of machinery.
"It was a remarkable plane," he says. "It was standard equipment. Like the Chevrolet. Like the Frigidaire.
"If you take the bulldozer, the Higgins boat, radar and the C-47, you have the four most basic instruments of World War II. They were invaluable."
Morgan first spotted his plane when he was cruising around the Internet one day a few months ago.
"I was actually looking for photos of a C-47," he says. "That's what makes this a riot. It is just so today.
"I did a Google search and the first thing that came up was this listing on eBay Motors for this aircraft."
He sees World War II airplanes for sale regularly, Morgan says, but this one caught his interest because of its history.
"This aircraft participated in four of the most significant airborne operations in the European theater in World War II," he says.
The plane made its debut on D-Day on the beaches of Normandy, France, the bloody battle widely credited with turning the tide in the war. Then it was in Operation Market Garden, which was the Allied invasion of Holland. Next it flew an important mission during the Battle of the Bulge, when it dropped supplies to the 101st Airborne division stranded in Bastogne, Belgium. And finally, it was part of Operation Varsity, an assault across Germany's Rhine River at the end of the war and the largest airborne operation in human history.
Manufactured in Oklahoma City, the plane -- which bears the identification number 42-93096 -- was commissioned in 1942 and delivered in 1944. Two months later was its baptism by fire on D-Day.
"It shows how desperately every single aircraft was needed," Morgan says. "It rolls off the assembly line and it's sent straight into combat."
Restored now to its 1944 appearance, the plane bears the motif of the Fourth Pathfinder Squadron, 9th Air Force, to which it was assigned. It also bears the scars of its adventures in Bastogne, with 50 small patches on its body.
"On that mission," Morgan says, "it flew low enough and slow enough over areas occupied by the enemy that soldiers on the ground shot at it with rifles, machine guns and pistols and it has 50 holes in it."
At the end of the war, the plane was used to ferry troops back to the United States. Later, it was sold to Finnish Air Lines. Later still, it was retired, but not before it took a star turn in "A Bridge Too Far," a 1977 movie about Operation Market Garden. It was then sold to a freight company in Burlington, Vt., and finally to Ronnie Green, who buys airplanes and sells them for parts in San Antonio. Green put the plane up for auction on eBay.
The plane -- all 16,000 pounds of it -- will hang in the Louisiana Pavilion, entryway to the National World War II Museum.
It won't be the only museum artifact bought on eBay.
"I have made 205 purchases for the museum on eBay," Morgan says. "I'm on eBay nearly every day. It's such a useful tool for a museum curator."
He has purchased everything, he says, from Army-regulation writing tablets to shoelaces for combat boots to helmets and uniforms and the 1943 yearbook of the 507th parachute infantry regiment.
Most of what he's bought has gone for $20 or $30, he says.
This time, by contrast, the price tag was $155,000, plus another $70,000 for restoration -- both of them compliments of Hilliard.
And he isn't finished yet. Now Hilliard is looking for a B-25 bomber and an SBD dive bomber.
"If we can get our hands on either one of them, we're going to do it," he says.
"This museum is going to be an economic engine for the city of New Orleans. Investing in this museum is a way of helping the city recover from the impact of Katrina. God knows it needs it."
When Hilliard got home from the Pacific theater after World War II, like so many American soldiers, he didn't dwell on the experience.
"I forgot about it for 40 years," he says. "You came out of there, you had to go to college, get an education, get married, raise a family, try to make a living.
"You didn't have time to think about that stuff. It was behind us. Old news."
But in later years, his wife took an interest in America's role in the war and became a devotee of the young New Orleans museum that traces its history.
She encouraged her husband enthusiastically when he began to get involved with the museum, where he is now a trustee.
"Had it not been for Mr. Hilliard, we wouldn't have gotten this plane," Morgan says. "We just didn't have that kind of money in post-K New Orleans.
"It's an example of how one person who wants to help can save a priceless artifact.
"So 38 years from now will be the 100th anniversary of the Normandy invasion and people can come to look at this plane and say 100 years ago, this is how the U.S. Army flew into combat."
. . . . . . .
Staff writer Elizabeth Mullener can be reached at
emullener@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3393.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We need more folks like this gentleman.
Robbie
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
