In a few hours the anniversary of D-Day will be upon us. In fact it is currently the anniversary of The Battle of Midway. When we come into building 53 to work on the Corsair we are reminded of the sacrifices that many a young man made to defend our country. We stand as guardians of that memory now.
We Teach, We Inform, We Pay Tribute to the Armed Services, and We Honor the Men and Women of the Home Front. These men and women fueled our now mostly forgotten capability to reshape the world assembly line by assembly line. At the peak of World War Two 8-10 Corsairs rolled off the assembly line each day.
There are those of us of who stand vigilant. We watch the sky for the last Corsair Pilot to take his final flight, for the Solider who will storm his last beach and for Rosie The Riveter to buck her last rivet. On that day we will be entrusted with this precious memory. It will be our duty to make sure that what they did so many years past is never wiped from the human conscious.
I am Monument Man. This is my promise.
As of today the Corsair has been replaced to her nest in Area 53. We turned the plane around 180 degrees. This will make the major breakdown go a lot faster. We have set up a B-4 Maintenance Stand and a set of B2 air stairs to make working on the sides of the Corsair safer.
Our mission now is to get the remainder of the tail broken loose and jigged up. Rob had Ben and Jerry bring over a Fireproof cabinet to store all the strippers and oils closer at hand. Thanks to Dave’s suggestion we are also working on bringing a refrigerator over so we can have cold drinks this summer.
We were able to get a few things done today. Pete and Bob worked on stripping the rear seam out so we can access the rivets. Rob, Ed and myself spent the early part of the day doing project management work, assessing the man hours and process that we are following on the tail. Then we were able to get hands on for a few and Ed got the elevator linkage free from the fuselage section and Rob and I got the other side freed up. I am currently working on cleaning the cowl flaps up and assessing the best treatment forward.
Today’s photo is courtesy of a fellow blogger, Laurie, a music teacher from Houston, TX. The photo really evokes Vigilance in my mind.
Adventures in History 
I love what you are doing. I have been going to airshows since I was a little kid. The then Confederate Air Force used to be based in my hometown. I love airplanes and flying things, but nothing stops my heart like planes from World War II.
Keep them flying.