Favorite Super Bowl commercials

Here were 2 of my favorite Super Bowl commercials last night:

Doritos - House Rules @ Yahoo! Video

and of course...

James laughing

We've found that James has a great laugh when he's getting tickled. Last night, we were able to get him to laugh by acting silly. The most amazing thing is, this video was taken 6 hrs after his doctor diagnosed him with double ear infections. Handsome, big, strong, and an excellent disposition even when sick? We're blessed parents. Here's the video...

Witchcraft pics

A friend from the 8th Air Force veteran's association sent me some pics taken the day Sgt Caldwell and I toured Witchcraft. It was quite an experience to stand beside a man who'd flown in and been shot out of the type of plane we were looking at. This first picture is the nose turret and you can see someone inside it.

Frank with a .50 cal

Right before I started the camera, Frank was imagining aiming at incoming fighters, as he did so many times, and said, "Tat, tat, tat, tat, tat..."

Inside the tail turret on B-24J

Talk about close quarters, I knew the tail turret would be small, but not this small. How Lloyd was able to remain confined for hours at a time, surrounded by spent shells, I'll never know. His only protection was one thick 8x10" piece of plexiglass directly in front of him, but otherwise paper thin aluminum and plastic 360 degrees around him.

In this video, I'm distracted by the significance of the moment and for Frank's safety in a narrow, dark part of the ship. The are no "take two" opportunities in such moments, so it'll have to do.


In a related story, a WWII veteran pilot died this week, just weeks after taking a ride on Witchcraft. Another hero lost. http://www.myfox8.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-obit-buried-wings-pilot,0,6619643.story

More video from Saturday's B-24 exhibit with Frank Caldwell:

Frank Caldwell in a B24...65 years later

How coincidental it was that my sister, Kristy, emailed me an episode of PBS's "History Detectives" this weekend featuring a special plane named Witchcraft. Watch the episode here: http://video.pbs.org/video/1138240842/ Though the B-24 holds the record for the most manufactured military plane in US history, 18,842, Witchcraft is the last remaining operable B-24J Liberator in the world. What's coincidental is, unbeknownst to Kristy, that very plane flew to Lexington, NC, this weekend on exhibit and I climbed inside it with our family friend, WWII veteran, Frank Caldwell. Frank was the flight engineer on Our Belle, the plane our great uncle, Lloyd Reid, was the tail gunner for. Our Belle was shot down over Budapest, Hungary, in July 1944. Frank and a few others were taken prisoner and held under horrible conditions for the remainder of the war. Lloyd did not survive the crash and Frank has been a miraculous source of information for the family. Here are a few pics and videos from Saturday: