2012 Paper Modelers at Army Heritage Days

[mbauer]

Hope you have a great time everyone!

Mike

[KCStephens]

It's getting close (less than 24 hours now) to AHD!!! This is one of my favorate weekends of the year. There is so much stuff to look at and take part in that you can't afford to miss it (did I mention that it's FREE OF CHARGE!) If you live anyware within a couple hours driving distance I highly recommend it, there is something there for everyone. You will not be dissapointed. Plus as a bonus this year the weather is going to be exceptional and there are going to be a lot more reenactors taking part then in prevoius years. In additional to all of this, I can't forget to mention that the food is awesome, especially the Maryland crabcake sandwiches and the fresh cut fries. Yummm. So, I hope to see you there this weekend.

[Don Boose]

Today was the first day of Army Heritage Days. Yesterday afternoon, Rick Steffers, Pedro Centano, Karl Warner, and I met at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center to do the initial set up. Kevin Stephens, Mike Scalingi, John and Rose Glessner, and Kevin Stephens arrived this morning. The event began officially at 9:00 AM.

Throughout the day, we had a constant stream of visitors, many reenactors in costumes from all the periods of the history of the U.S. Army, lots of young people, and a number of veterans.

The papers models inspired a lot of the old veterans to talk, sometimes because they had experiences with the aircraft or vehicles on display, sometimes just because looking at models of tanks and airplanes and trucks jogged their memories.

One man had served as a Navy Corpsman with the 4th Marine Division on Iwo Jima and said he cried when he saw the Stars and Stripes flying over Mount Surabachi “because I finally realized we were going to win.” He served again, in Korea, with the 5th Marine Regimental Combat Team.

Pedro talked snake eater talk with Special Forces and Ranger veterans.

I talked with a retired Air Force B-52 pilot who may have put in the ARCLIGHT (B-52 close air support mission) that prepped the beach during an amphibious operation that Jim Nunn and I participated in back in 1967.

A former B-25 pilot looked at Mike’s PBJ for a long time, saying nothing, just looking and remembering.

And one veteran of the 8055 Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in Korea (the outfit that the book, movie, and television series were based on) taught us something, and therein lies a tale.

Mike had been talking about the problems of oral history recorded decades after the events and the difficulty of sorting out the truth from false memories. Shortly thereafter, Kevin showed us his grandfather’s scrapbook (another story in itself, since Kevin’s grandfather had served in a tank destroyer battalion in WWII, had been captured and held as a prisoner of war (POW) after the Battle of the Bulge, and also served in Korea with a combat engineer battalion).

One of the pictures in the album was of a Bell H-13 medical evacuation helicopter on the heli-pad at a MASH in Korea. Those are the same helicopters that were used in the opening scenes of the television show.

Just as we closed the scrapbook, a very old man approached our table and shouted “Sikorsky! Sikorsky!”

“We don’t have any models of Sikorsky aircraft on the table today,” one of us said, but there ARE a lot of paper models of Sikorsky aircraft and helicopters.”

Then, looking at the 8055 MASH written on his cap, I made the mistake of saying, “But I’ll bet the helicopter you saw the most was the Bell H-13.”

He became very agitated and shouted, “Bull! It’s all lies! All lies! They never flew that helicopter. They were all Sikorskys! Sikorskys!”

“Oh,” I said. “Thank you for that information.” And the man walked off saying, “Sikorsky!” Sikorsky! I’m going to give a talk and tell the world that they were Sikorskys.”

Lil whispered to Kevin, “You better not show him that photograph of the Bell H-13 and the MASH.”

We discussed this later and, while we were skeptical of his story, and joked about his intense shouting of “Sikorsky! Sikorsky” ("This might replace 'It looks like a Corsair'," said Mike), we also speculated that perhaps when that veteran was with the 8055th MASH, the medivac helicopters might have been H-19s or H-5s.

Tonight, I looked it up and found a photograph of the 8055 MASH in Korea. There are three helicopters shown: two H-5s and one H-19. They are all Sikorskys. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24431355@N05/3380581227/

We handed out a lot of Paper Tiger Armaments 1/72 M3 light tank models and a lot of LBirds 1/72 Stinson L-5s and a lot of DGA jeeps and a lot of ECardmodels fliers.

We talked to many people, men, women, and children who were genuinely interested in trying to build paper models. We gave out a lot of information about paper model sources and building techniques. And we said, over and over and over, “Yes, they are all made out of paper.”

Pedro explained, “Paper – it’s not just for writing anymore.”

My camera acted up on me today, many of my photos turned out blurry, and I did not get out on the trail. But here is a selection of shots of people passing by. In the next post, I will provide some captions.

The smiling man in the first shot is Silver Oxide. The man on the left in the last photo jumped with the 101st Airborne Division at Normandy and Eindhoven. He was disappointed that we didn’t have a C-47 on display. His son and daughter-in-law are restoring an M9A1 International Harvester half-track. They also serve as WWII-era living historians.

I presume that Mike and others will be posting images soon.

More later,

Don

[Don Boose]

1. Administrator Ricksteff (The Grande Fromage) monitors the Forum from afar. Kevin and Mike in the background.

2. Rick commits paper modeling (the helicopter is NOT a Sikorsky).

3. Rick ran a how-to video throughout the day.

4. Karl K. Warner, the Official U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center Paper Modelers Wrangler wrangles Kevin Stephens, who looks properly wrangled.

5. Karl and Kevin take a close look. Kevin: “Is it a Renault FT or a Renault FT-17?”

6. DrLaser: “It looks like a Corsair.” Ricksteff: “Sikorsky! Sikorsky!”

7. DrLaser’s famous Halberstadt, a work in progress.

8. John to Mike: “You won’t believe it, but this thing is made out of paper.”

9. Some of Mike’s models.

10. And do you remember the magnificent snub-nosed Mitchell and the Clark tractor? Two of the greatest build threads in Forum history, IMHO.

11. Kevin and his display of models. And to the left, a cameo appearance of tanks by Karl K. Warner. Pedro in the background.

12. The Boose display with a stack of ECardmodels brochures.

13 and 14: Two tired reenactors at the end of the day.

[Don Boose]

And finally –

It is the tradition from time immemorial that the Paper Modelers at Army Heritage Days end the first day with a traditional, immemorial, and solemn dinner at Amy’s Thai cuisine, which today included birthday toasts to Ryan Short and Mike Bauer and a toast to Greg Perry and other absent friends.

1. The assembled crew. Left to right: Don Boose, Denise (the Official Paper Modelers Thai Food Server since Time Immemorial), Lil Boose, Mike Scalingi, Kevin Stephens, Maureen Stephens, Rose Glessner, John Glessner, Pedro Centano, and Rick Steffers. Maureen: "What a great way to celebrate our wedding anniversary!"

2. Denise serves the traditional Tom Yum Talay (“Spicy Many-Sea Creature Soup”).

3. We all look solemn.

More tomorrow.

Don

[KCStephens]

Ready for round two - In search of Sikorski!!!!

[Paperwarrior]

That was a great run down, Don. I bet that was a surprise running into that B-52 pilot. It is a small world. That was an interesting line about the MASH. Where I was stationed in Korea, the first time, was very close to where the MASH was set up during the war. Of course, it looks A LOT different now.

It looks like a fun time was had by all. I really get a kick out of the look on the boys' faces in picture 4 of your first set of pictures. that truely looks like an expression of, 'that's paper'.

Thanks for the update. I look forward to seeing many more.

Jeff

[Bomarc]

SIKORSKY!!!!

I didn't take that many pics myself, but I'll try to post what I have later today.

May the SIKORSKY!!!! be with you......

[rockpaperscissor]

Oh man, that looks like it was a great time. I really hope I can make it next year. I'm a solid 4 hours away, but I'm sure it would have been well worth the drive. Nice photo set and synopsis, Don. Thanks for posting.

[modelperry]

i wish I wasn't 14 hours away. I am really missing this one with all my friends. :( Hope day two is going well.

Greg