(March 7, 2008) -- 91 year old NLB resident/US Navy Veteran Clifford Chaffee is being treated to a flight in a B-17 Flying Fortress at LB Airport on Saturday (March 8), thanks to fellow NLB'er and Navy vet Jesse Brown.

Mr. Brown says he purchased the ticket ($395) for Mr. Chaffee in honor of Chaffee's 71st wedding anniversary. "I figured this old timer has done a lot for my country and it's the least I could do," Mr. Brown told LBReport.com.

In 2006, Mr. Chaffee was the Honorary Grand Marshal for the LB Veterans Day Parade.

His image adorns part of the LB Veterans Mural across from Houghton Park (shown posing with his biplane in 1937).

Mr. Brown says that in WWII, Mr. Chaffee landed on the Marshall Islands, set up temporary air bases and repaired roughly 60 damaged airplanes. Following his Navy service, Mr. Chaffee worked for other avaition-related companies. A family member said, "There's aviation stuff all over the house."

So why did Mr. Brown pay the cost of Mr. Chaffee's B-17 ride ($430)? "I figured this old timer has done a lot for my country, and it's the least I could do," Mr. Brown told us.

Photo source: www.libertyfoundation.org

Mr. Brown says Mr. Chaffee has been a LB resident for over 80 years and is a "very energetic fellow." At age 70, he was awarded the Carnegie Hero award for saving a child from a house fire. When we called to speak with Mr. Chaffee at midday, a family member said Mr. Chaffee was out...and had been all over town today.

Mr. Brown says he met Mr. Chaffee a few years ago; they conversed...and Chaffee invited Brown to ride with him (when Chaffee was Grand Marshal) in the 2006 LB Veterans Parade.

The B-17 "Liberty Belle" is on a tour organized by the Tulsa-based Liberty Foundation (www.libertyfoundation.org). The aircraft's history (from the libertyfoundation.org website):

On September 9, 1944 the 390th Bomb Group attacked a target in Dusseldorf, Germany and suffered its second largest single mission loss of the war. Over the target just prior to bomb release, one of the low squadron B-17s was hit in the Bomb bay by flak. The 1000 lb. bombs exploded and nine of the twelve aircraft in the squadron were instantly destroyed or knocked out of formation.

Six of the nine went down over the target, one flew two hours on a single engine and landed at Paris, another "crippled plane" landed in Belgium and the other struggled back to its home base and landed long after the other thirty nine B-17s had returned from the mission. The one that came home was "Liberty Belle", she went on to complete 64 combat missions before being salvaged on February 18, 1945.

The Liberty Foundation’s B-17G (SN 44-85734)...originally sold on June 25, 1947 as scrap to Esperado Mining Co. of Altus, OK. It sold again later that year to Pratt & Whitney for $2,700. Pratt & Whitney operated the B-17 from November 19, 1947 to 1967 as a heavily modified test bed for their P&W T-34 and T-64 turboprop engines. It became a “5-engine aircraft”, having the powerful prototype engine mounted on the nose! The aircraft was flown “single-engine”, with all four radial engines feathered during test flights.

Following this life as a test platform, it was donated in the late 1960s to the Connecticut Aeronautical Historic Association in East Hartford. Unfortunately, it was heavily damaged on October 3, 1979 in a tornado, in which another aircraft was thrown onto the B-17’s mid-section. The wreck was stored in the New England Air Museum, CT from 1981 until 1987. [It then underwent a 15 year restoration]

This year's Liberty Foundation B-17 route began in San Diego last weekend, will be in LB March 8-9, then moves to Van Nuys, Bakersfield, Salinas and SF.

Another B-17, on a separate tour by a separate group (Experimental Aircraft Ass'n at www.b17.org), will be at LB Airport April 11-13.