here’s a story from the Orange County Register about a grandmom who is going to climb back into a P-51 fighter plane this weekend and fly it years after she did during WWII
by Lori Basheda
Vi Cowden has a message for her peers: “It doesn’t matter how old you are,” she told me. “You can enjoy life just as much at 92 as you can at 24.”
To prove it, the Huntington Beach grandmom will climb into a P-51 Mustang Fighter today and fly it from San Diego to Long Beach, kicking off the Wings of Freedom Tour, a travelling museum exhibit of vintage WWII aircrafts. “The privelege of getting into this wonderful airplane and being able to fly it again, it’s like no time has passed,” she told me.
Vi flew many P-51s during WWII. A school teacher in South Dakota, she had gotten her private pilot’s license. When WWII broke out, she was among the small group of women who broke gender barriers, becoming the first female aviators to serve in the U.S. Military.
Vi flew many aircrafts from factories to ships so they could be sent overseas, logging enough miles to have circumnavigated the world 55 times over.
She is expected to land at the Long Beach airport around 1:30 p.m. if you want to watch, or even meet her.
“Oh, I’m excited. It’s just kind of like a dream come true.”
She already made a few other dreams come true. When she turned 76 she said she realized she wasn’t getting any younger, so she jumped out of an airplane. She did it again at 89 (there’s her in the picture above). When she was 90, she went para-gliding for the first time. She hopes to do that again in a few months. She’s also tried to spar with her grandson, a double black-belt, but he told her he wouldn’t do it until she got some training.
Recently widowed after 54 years of marriage, Vi called her WWII days ”a wonderful time in my life. I was flying these very sophisticated airplanes and didn’t have to buy the gas. And everyone had such a good attitude about life. Everyone was up and eager to do their jobs and whatever they could do for the war effort. The reason we lived that way was because it might be the last day we had, so we wanted to make it wonderful.”
You can see vintage WWII aircrafts at 3333 E. Spring Street in Long Beach Friday through Tuesday. Or click here for more information.
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