Flying High

As two 14-cylinder radials roared outside, World War II veterans Robert Duckworth and Lester Harris sat on-board "Maid in the Shade" with surpisingly harmonious attitudes of quiet tranquility.

Duckworth, age 101, and Harris, age 91, scaled the ladder leading into the belly of the 21,000-pound plane with excited agility as if they traveled decades back in time to their youthful days of service.

Introduced in 1941 and nearly 53-feet long, the "Maid in the Shade" B-25 warplane dominated the skies with its 67.5-foot wingspan. Stocked with 11 machine guns and one of only 34 World War II aircraft of its type still flying, the "Maid in the Shade" gained notoriety as one of the most versatile aircraft of World War II, capable of high- and low-level bombing, strafing, reconnaissance, submarine patrol and dogfighting.

While the remaining group of about 20 other Missouri Veterans Home residents watched from the shade of a nearby hangar, Duckworth and Harris gazed out the windows of the bomber with wide-eyed wonder as the all-metal monster climbed away from the runway at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, drawing fearless chuckles from the decorated duo with each occasional bang from the bomber's twin 1,700-horsepower engines.

During the war, the two men served in separate branches of the military, but an unshakable, unspoken bond of battle-readiness tied them together.

World War II veteran Robert Duckworth hugs flight crew member Diana LeSueur after flying aboard B-25J Mitchell Bomber "Maid in the Shade."

Duckworth worked as a mechanic with the Army from 1943 to 1945, and Harris served in the 5th Air Force from 1945 to 1946 keeping planes stocked with gasoline.

Upkeep on the aircraft is now handled by the Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum, which sends its fleet of seven World War II era planes to be shown across the country in the Flying Legends of Victory Tour.

For these two veterans, "Maid in the Shade" showed a slice of history from an era of wartime which will likely never be seen again -- a time before modern unmanned aircrafts, when an engine's scream sounded as a mechanized battle cry unlike any other bird in the sky.

bmatthews@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3652

"Maid in the Shade" sits at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.