Page 13 - aruba-today-20170701

A13
LOCAL Saturday 1 July 2017

Flying the 101 Years-Old Jenny (Curtiss JN4)

By Clyde Harms ing plane at the Whiting ron for two years at Scott
ORANJESTAD - Lt. Col Mat- Field near Pensacola. The Air Force Base. As Scott
thew Getty, a U. S. Air Stearman, a bi-plane, was AF Base was celebrating
Force pilot who served in a direct descendant of the its 100th anniversary as a
Iraq and Afghanistan flying
a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy
plane, is the grandson of
Bill Hochstuhl who, as Edi-
tor of the Aruba Esso News
wrote the book “German
U-Boat 156 Brought War To
Aruba February 16, 1942”.
During the Second World
War, Bill Hochstuhl served
as a U. S. Navy pilot in
Greenland on patrol duties “I can tell you it was an in- has told me about flying
in the North Atlantic flying credibly neat moment to in biplanes and you can
the PB2Y2. Bill had learned be in the open cockpit of a imagine it was a special
to fly as a young recruit as- hundred year old airplane moment”.
signed to the naval base (it’s actually a replica but Grandma Eileen watched
in Pensacola. His instructor built to exact specifications the flight on video and was
was the “Link Trainer” Miss Bill Hochstuhl learned to fly in a Stearman bi-plane like this of the original with some filled with pride as her el-
one.
Eileen Sivori, who would lat- original hardware) over a dest grandson piloted that
er become Mrs. Hochstuhl, 100 year old field that I had 101 year old Jenny. Grand-
Matthew’s grandmother. famous Curtis JN-4, popu- the opportunity to lead the dad Bill Hochstuhl would
(Mrs. Hochstuhl received larly known as “Jenny”. pilot training base where operation of for the past have loved the moment.
her own pilot’s license after Until last week, Matthew they trained pilots in the two years. Add that to re- Send your comments to
the war in 1946). had been Wing Com- Curtis Jenny and the Jen- living the stories Granddad clydeharms@yahoo.com
Following his “Link” training, mander of the 375th Op- ny was also in its Centen-
Bill spent many hours actu- erations Support Squad- nial year, the base invited
ally flying a Stearman train- the Jenny to participate
in the airshow scheduled
for the festivities around
the change of command
of the base. Due to very
gusty conditions, the Jenny
was unable to perform and
had to stay at the base for
almost a week.
When Dorian Walker, own-
er of the Jenny came to
get his plane, he offered
to do a few fly-bys of the
field prior to departure. At
that point, the new Wing
Commander who had just
replaced Matthew sug-
gested to Matthew to take
up Mr. Walker on his offer
for a flight. He did.
Matthew, who had spent
hundreds of hours flying the
C 5, a plane big enough to
carry as many as 130 Jen-
nies, who used to perform
mid-air refueling opera-
tions at altitudes of over 40
thousand feet, was asked
Lt. Col. Matthew Getty with Dorian Walker, owner of the Jenny. how he had felt taking the
spin in the Jenny. As the pilot, Matthew sat in the front seat.