The Commemorative Air Force’s Airbase Arizona Aviation Museum will hold their seventh Annual Gathering of Legends on November 11th. The event will take place at their facility on Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, and will celebrate the service of military aviation personnel who helped preserve the nation’s freedom. This year the show will focus on aviation veterans from World War Two and the conflicts in Korea and Viet Nam. Tuskegee Airmen, Women Airforce Service Pilots (known as WASPs), World War II fighter pilots and bomber crews, former WWII Royal Air Force cadets who trained at Falcon Field, Forward Air Controllers and other veteran aviators are expected to attend.
The Military Aviation Walk of Honor is a prominent feature at Airbase Arizona and each year the Museum adds a small cadre of prominent Arizonian military aviation professionals to the list of heroes it celebrates. Among the Legends scheduled to attend the show, Airbase Arizona is privileged to have several Military Aviation Walk of Honor inductees present; including Sergei Sikorsky, retired Rear Admirals Lew Chatham and Hugh Dennis Wisely, and Medal of Honor recipients Colonel Bruce Crandall and Major Fred Ferguson.
This unique Veteran’s Day weekend commemoration will start off on the evening of Monday, November 10th, when Airbase Arizona hosts its Dinner With The Legends. The dinner will take place inside Airbase Arizona’s Aviation Museum, located on Falcon Field at 2017 North Greenfield Road in Mesa, Arizona. Retired US Army Colonel Bruce Crandall will deliver the keynote address. Crandall was a long-time city employee in Mesa, and will serve as Grand Marshal in Mesa’s Veterans Day Parade on Saturday, November 8th. He received the Medal of Honor for his astonishing bravery while flying a UH-1 Huey helicopter during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. This battle featured heavily in the gripping book “We Were Soldiers Once… and Young” by Lt.Gen.Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway, both of whom saw heavy action in the battle. The book eventually became the 2002 movie “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel Gibson. Actor Greg Kinnear played the role of Colonel Crandall, call sign ‘Snake’. The evening will commence with a reception at 5:15 pm, with dinner following at 6:00 pm. The speaker program will begin at 7:00 pm. Reservations for the Dinner are $50 per person, or $400 per table of eight. Sponsorships are also available.
The main event will happen on Tuesday, November 11th, when Airbase Arizona presents the Seventh Annual Gathering of Legends in their Aviation Museum at Falcon Field between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. The opening ceremonies will begin at 11:00 am. Visitors are invited to meet and speak personally with the attending Legends. Normal admission rates apply.
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