“I’m having a hard time remembering names,” my friend’s frustration said. “I can’t remember them like I used to!”
“I can relate,” I offered. “Bad news is, it’s the massive amount of data build up in our brains as the years fly by. The searches take longer. The good news is it will come to you. It does for me. In an hour or two. Or a day … or so. Sometimes.”
“Another frustration,” I continued, “is trying to remember where I put things. Like last week searching for a photo of an airplane I owned. I know I have it … somewhere. How do we accumulate so much ‘stuff’ in one lifetime.”
My searching did, however, turn up photos of other airplanes. And a name lost to memory. Reverend Isaac Newton Burchinal, Jr. and his WWII airplanes.
“Reverend who,” my friend inquired?
“Better known as ‘Junior’ Burchinal. His Flying Tiger Air Museum was a collection of WWII airplanes at a small Northeast Texas crop dusting strip west of Paris. Not exactly museum pristine examples, but airworthy none-the-less.
A story of Flying Tiger’s P-51 Mustang often repeated recounted a demonstration ride during which Burchinal pulled the old fighter plane up and over in a loop for the thrill seeking passenger. As the aircraft reached to top of the maneuver fully inverted, the passenger reported seeing not only a spectacular view of the earth from an upside down perspective, but also an assortment of nuts, bolts, and small parts falling from their hiding place in the bottom of the airplane raining down through the cockpit. This is the same plane that at the time had stenciled on the nose, the nickname “In God We Trust.”
The ‘refound’ photos reminded me of the day Burchinal flew his B-17 bomber to the old Mount Pleasant airport in the mid 1970s.
While learning to fly, I visited the colorful aviator’s field where he flew them often for local shows, and as a stunt pilot for Universal Studios in movies like “The Great Waldo Pepper” and “Midway,” plus the television series, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.”
Not only were the planes fascinating, but I was in awe that anyone could fly the big warbirds off the small asphalt strip that ran uphill on one end with a fence and traveled highway on the other.
Burchinal’s Mount Pleasant visit was at an air show our fledgling Mount Pleasant flying club, the Northeast Texas Aviation Association, staged. I called him to inquire whether we might afford him and one his planes for our show. A deal was sealed; he was bringing his B-25 Mitchell bomber. That was until the afternoon before he called.
“Leon, this is Junior Burchinal up here in Paris,” he said. “I’ve got some bad news. We’re having problems with the B-25. It won’t make the trip tomorrow.”
My heart began rapidly losing altitude. Visions of, “what now,” spiraled out of control. “But, if it’s all right with you,” he added, “we’ll bring the B-17 for the same money.”
“All right,” I stammered, my spirits pulling out of the dive. “Yes sir, that is good news.” He continued to apologize, almost as many times as I thanked him.
Early the next morning, as club members scurried about working on last minute preparation, I heard the huge four-engine B-17 coming over downtown Mount Pleasant. Mesmerized by the sight and sounds, I watched it make a long straight-in approach to the airport. Just as wheels touched pavement, a WW II “Corsair” fighter made a hi-speed pass over the airport before circling back to land.
Both planes taxied to the ramp. Burchinal climbed out of the single seat fighter, followed by a young lady who appeared literally to unfold and crawl out of a small seat added behind the pilot. He introduced the bomber crew, then the young lady as his daughter, before apologizing again for not bringing the B-25. “But I brought the Corsair to make up for it.”
No one could have dreamed as time was flying by, that the B-25 that couldn’t make the show would later land at the Vintage Flying Museum at Meacham Field in Fort Worth for a few years there. Or that it would decades later find a home at Mid-America flight museum in Mount Pleasant. And I would have never imagined that I saw it in Fort Worth about 20 years ago where I grabbed a fun photo of me in the pilot’s seat, never dreaming I would duplicate that photo just a few years ago at Mid-America Flight Museum.
The good news last week was finding the photo of Burchinal’s airplanes and reminiscing.
The bad news this week is that time still flies, and I’m still looking for that photo of my old airplane. It’s around here somewhere. I’ll find it in a day or two.
Maybe.
—Leon Aldridge
(Photo: Original Flying Tigers pubicicity black-and-white photo from the 1970’s of I.N. Birchinal Jr.’s B-17 Flying Fortress WWII bomber “Balls of Fire” flying above the Red River north of Pairs, Texas. )
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Aldridge columns are featured in these publications: The Center Light and Champion, The Mount Pleasant Tribune, the Rosenberg Fort Bend Herald, the Taylor Press, the Alpine Avalanche, the Fort Stockton Pioneer, the Elgin Courier, The Monitor in Naples, and Motor Sports Magazine.
© Leon Aldridge and A Story Worth Telling 2025. Excerpts and links may be used, provided full and clear credit is given to Leon Aldridge and ‘A Story Worth Telling’ with appropriate and specific directions to the original content.
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