TWIN FALLS — Brooke Haney became emotional as she watched her 92-year old father, George Haney, crawl out of a B-25 Bomber at Reeder Flight Service Monday, her brother, Tad Haney said it was a dream come true for George.

    Brooke and Tad arranged for George to fly with the crew of the bomber from Heber City, Utah, to Twin Falls as a Father’s Day gift.

    George, who is from Filer, served 23 years in the U.S. Air Force and can claim 64 successful mission aboard the bomber’s predecessor, the B-17, but Monday was his first flight in a B-25.

    “She flew like a dream,” George said. “She rolled off the assembly line 70 years ago last week. This is the plane that dropped the atomic bomb.”

    George’s wife, Ruth Haney, said her husband canceled a doctor’s appointment to make the flight.

    “He was supposed to have a sonogram on his heart, but they said they thought his heart would be just fine,” Ruth said. “He was so excited to get to do this.”

    Apparently the flight was just what his heart needed — George and Ruth, who have been married for 71 years, kissed under the Maid in the Shade logo painted on the side of the plane — along with the logo, a pretty redhead, clad in cutoff khakis and a tightly cropped shirt stared down from the side of the plane.

    Pilot Russ Gilmore said it took 28 years to restore the aircraft — the B-25 bomber survived 15 battles and the plane bore a number of repaired bullet holes to prove it.

    “It’s like flying a brand new B-25,” Gilmore said. “It’s called Maid in the Shade because it flew out of Corsica.”

    The vintage plane is part of the Commemorative Air Force fleet and it’s housed at Falcon Field in Mesa, Ariz. During World War II, the site served as a training base for RAF.

    Gilmore said the B-25 was made famous by Col. Jimmy Doolittle and his Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.

    “Doolittle was awarded the Medal of Honor and he accepted it on behalf of the Raiders,” Gilmore said.

    The Doolittle raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942, proved to the Japanese that their home islands were vulnerable to American attacks and caused them to shift vital resources to their defense. Two months later that played a crucial role in the outcome of the Battle of Midway, the American victory that turned the tide in the Pacific theater.

    But the victory came at a price, Gilmore said 82 men went out and only 68 returned.

    Gilmore said the B-25 is powered by a right cyclone R 260D  — the bomber has 1,700 horsepower per engine – Gilmore has about 400 hours flying time in the cockpit of the Maid in the Shade.

    “It’s an honor to be able to fly this plane,” Gilmore said. “It’s a national treasure, we’re kind of a flying museum.”

    More than 16,000 B-25s were produced and the planes were a vital tool in both the Pacific and European theaters.

    Crew member Ed Cook said the plane burns 100 octane, low lead fuel and each of its twin engines uses 75 gallons of fuel and 100 gallons of oil per hour.

    As a crew of media members waited to board the plane Monday, Gilmore asked them to think about the veterans who made the plane famous 70 years ago.

    Sitting in the seat next to one of a dozen 50-caliber machine guns mounted onto the B-25, it’s hard not to think about the young man who held the seat seven decades ago — as he stared out the small window, was he looking at the Pacific Ocean, or at a centuries-old European city center — was he afraid and did he maybe say a prayer before the plane’s huge engines carried it into the air.

    The smell inside the plane is a mix of oil, steel and exhaust, the ride is bumpy and it’s noisy.

    Getting to the tail guns requires crawling on hands and knees through a six-foot entrance to the open tail – from the tail there is a clear view of three sides of the plane. Here seated on what looks and feeling like a bicycle seat, the gunner manned his machine guns.

    Ammunition magazines hang above the guns mounted on each side of the plane.

    “That’s where the expression, ‘Give them the whole nine yards,’ comes from,” Cook said. “If you lay the magazines out they’re about one inch shy of nine yards long.”

    The powerful engines roar just a few feet from the guns and the bay that carried the payload separates the pilot, co-pilot and front gunner from the crew in the back of the plane — the airmen communicated via radio and headsets.

    The B-25 flew at about 22,000 feet, which made the cold steel even colder.

    The scenic ride above the Magic Valley provided a new perspective and appreciation for the pilots and gunners who climbed aboard the planes 70 years ago, and those aboard said it was an honor to be able to fly in the fighting machine as well.

    The plane was in Twin Falls as part of the Air Magic Valley Air Show — this year’s theme is Celebrating Freedom.

    Jim O’Donnell with the Air Magic Valley Air Show, said along with the B-25 Mitchell Bomber, named for Gen. Billy Mitchell, the show will include, a P51 Spitfire, a TBM medium range bomber, a T33 jet and a PVB 2, a sea plane that was used in the Elution Islands.

    “There are only three PVBs still in the air,” O’Donnell said.

    The Air Magic Valley Air Show kicks off Friday at 6 pm — the show continues on Saturday and Sunday with the gates opening at 9 am at the Twin Falls Airport.