Hollister
– For 84-year-old Leon Doubek, visiting the Hollister Municipal
Airport was a chance a relive a piece of personal history.
Hollister – For 84-year-old Leon Doubek, visiting the Hollister Municipal Airport was a chance a relive a piece of personal history.
The airport is playing host to three World War II bombers: the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress “Nine O Nine,” the Consolidated B-24 Liberator “Witchcraft” and the North American B-25 Mitchell.
It was a B-24 that brought Leon Doubek home from the South Pacific when he was serving in the U.S. Army. Leon Doubek recalled that in exchange for helping out in a local hospital, he was able to hitch a ride on a B-24 flying from the city of Tacloban in the Philippines back to the United States.
On Tuesday morning, Leon Doubek found himself in front of a B-24 once again. Royal Oaks resident Mark Doubek, 47, said he drove his father to Hollister after seeing a story about the Wings of Freedom exhibit on television.
“I’m just awe-struck,” Mark Doubek said. “Like, ‘Wow, this is history. Where would we have been without them?'”
In addition to flying the planes into Hollister, the Massachusetts-based nonprofit Collings Foundation also takes a lucky few locals up for flights. Mark Doubek said he wants to go up on a B-24, but Leon Doubek’s health problems will prevent him from tagging along. Instead, Mark Doubek hopes to bring his daughter along, making for a history lesson that spans three generations.
Monterey resident Charles Tope, 34, said he already shelled out $425 in 2006 to take a flight aboard a B-24. Tope said that even after the flight, he’s still excited to see the planes up close – excited enough to make a detour in his drive from Monterey to San Jose.
“It’s like stepping back in time,” he said.
Roy Collings, whose parents created the Collings Foundation, piloted one of the historic planes into Hollister on Monday afternoon. Collings said the planes are “on the road” for about 10 months out of the year, stopping at around 110 cities.
“We get more people if we go to everyone’s hometown, rather than sticking them in a museum,” he said.
Collings added that seeing children and veterans at the exhibit is his biggest thrill, especially when the two groups interact.
“Once in a while, you see a light that goes off,” he said. “You know they’re going to go home and start doing more research. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, that’s what makes it worthwhile.”
The Wings of Freedom Tour will be in Hollister until noon today, when it flies to Moffett Field.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
