My editor should have known better than to send me to cover the auction of a B-25 World War II bomber. The B-25 was the type of airplane in Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle’s 16-plane armada that bombed Japan in retaliation for its sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, four months earlier on December 7, 1941.
“Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” was the popular book and movie about the “impossible mission”. Anyone who read the book or saw the movie should not have been at that auction just a few miles from my New Jersey home. And every Air Force vet like me who’d ever flown in a B-25 and was often too impulsive at auctions should have been locked in his attic that day.
“Get their stories!” my editor demanded. He’d been a World War II bomber pilot so I knew I had to be 100 percent technically correct and prepared to cross examine everyone at the auction. I was in the USAF in Korea during that war, but my flying experience was limited to “hitch hiking” from one base to another, twice in a B-25.
There were only a few prospective bidders at Caldwell Airport that day. Air Force vet John Gulow told me he had fond memories of his B-25 flights, one of which was a low altitude pass over downtown Boston with one of the plane’s two engines in flames. I’m sure his memory of that flight didn’t reach the “fond” level for a couple of hours and a couple of strong drinks, later.
John and Dick, two guys from Liberty Corners, said, if they got the bomber, they’d have it hauled to one of their backyards, fix it up and situate it so they could just look at it from time to time. “I guess that sounds silly, one of them said. “But that’s what we have in mind.” My increasing problem was, I didn’t think that sounded silly.
Don Hare of Morristown said he planned to open a hobby shop and would place the bomber in front as an attraction. “Where will your hobby shop be?” I asked.
He replied he would have to find a town that would allow a huge B-25 display.
The auction lasted about 60 seconds, but I guess a book containing all the thoughts of all the participants and attendees during that single minute would be too heavy to lift.
Business partners Charles Proctor and Jack Clarey, were selling the aircraft to the highest eligible bidder. They turned to the auctioneer and one of them calmly said, “Okay, it’s your show now.”
Everyone in the room, even those who, like me, were not planning to bid, seemed to tense up. I thought, “What the hell am I doing here? This could be dangerous!”
“This is an as-is sale,” the auctioneer announced.
(That’s where you get the real bargains, I thought.)
“There are no guarantees,” the auctioneer continued.
(Who needs a guarantee? You’d actually own a B-25 bomber! No one can take that from you. Well, maybe a fussy zoning board, but there must be some place you can park it and take it out from time to time to show it off. It only weighs about ten tons with a wingspan of 67 feet. Just a few feet wider than my yard.)
“We start the bids at $1,100,” the auctioneer announced.
(I could cut lunches for a couple of years and not replace the old Chevy. It’s still moving at 120,000 miles. I could drive mostly downhill.)
“I’ll take it at $1,100,” someone shouted. (Oh no! Was that me? How do I explain to my wife that I bought a World War II bomber? She’s been very understanding, but there’s a limit.) People were shaking hands with Don Hare. I was just shaking. (So he was the single bidder? The lucky devil!)
Imagine That 