WWII-era bombers on display
PENN TWP — For every bomb painted on the side of a B-24 there was a mission in World War II. For every mission, there's a story.
The “Witchcraft” Liberator owns 130 of them. And George “Casey” Lazlo, 92, of Ellwood City can personally account for 15 of those missions. He reconnected Monday with the plane he piloted in his youth, and he shared some of its stories.
“This really makes me remember,” Lazlo said while standing in the shadow of an olive colored wing on the runway at the Butler County Airport.
The “Wings of Freedom Tour” which visits more than 100 cities a year is in Penn Township through noon Wednesday.
On this stop, paying visitors can tour or ride the B-24, or the “Nine O Nine,” a Boeing B-17, also known as a Flying Fortress. A P-51 Mustang that was originally part of the exhibit will not be displayed. It flew instead to Florida for repairs.
“People come here for all sorts of reasons,” said Mac McCauley of California, who's logged more than 5,000 hours as the B-17's current pilot. “Some people come because they are history buffs or aviation enthusiasts. But we get an awful lot of veterans, and they get emotional.”
For Lazlo, that minute came in retelling the trip that earned him a Purple Heart: his third mission in 1944.
“The day I was shot down,” said Lazlo, who was piloting a Liberator named “Jack the Ripper,” when he was hit with anti-aircraft fire over Germany. Five of the 10 men on board were killed, but Lazlo said “I kept flying the best I could” and he emergency landed the plane while it was on fire.
Vito Morabito, 89, of Penn Township had a different seat on a different B-24, and yet had parallel emotions.
Morabito, a tail gunner on 50 missions, has a faded but well-preserved, black-and-white photograph in his wallet of himself and others standing in front of the plane they manned.
Now a great-grandfather to six, Morabito is a teen in the photo.
“We got shot at every day,” he said. “Seeing it (the plane) today and remembering that ... it bothers me something terrible.”
On one trip, Morabito was flying in a plane known only as Number 28, when, “We got hit pretty bad. The hydraulics were shot out and the pilot told me to bail out. I got a parachute and opened the escape hatch.”In that second, Morabito said he “was sick. We were at 20,000 feet and I had never wanted to be in a plane in the first place.”At the last second, the pilot told Morabito not to jump and successfully put the plane on the ground.Jennifer Collins of Connoquenessing Township said she and her son, 14-year-old Caleb, came to the event not just to see the planes, but also in hopes of bumping into someone like Lazlo or Morabito.“He (Caleb) is a history buff and he is really interested in World War II, especially the guns,” Jennifer Collins said.“But it is a real privilege to speak to a real pilot, and hear his stories. This is not Hollywood. This happened.”
<B>WHAT: </B>The Wings of Freedom Tour<B>WHAT YOU WILL SEE: </B>A Consolidated B-24 Liberator and a B-17 Flying Fortress<B>WHERE: </B>The Butler County Airport, 475 Airport Road, Penn Township<B>WHEN:</B> 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. today and 9 a.m. until noon Wednesday<B>COST TO VISIT:</B> Adults are $12; children younger than 12 are $6; World War II veterans are free<B>COST TO RIDE:</B> A 30-minute trip on either plane is $425
