EX-NAVY PILOT SAYS APPEARANCE OF BLUE ANGELS SPARKS MEMORIES

Fifty years ago, Charles Brune didn't realize a decision he made with friends to become a Navy pilot would shape the rest of his life.

In 1942, Brune was part of a group of 20 college freshmen and sophomores who were told by the Navy that if they signed up, they would be kept together through World War II.

They would be called the Indian Squadron because all of them were students at Southeast Missouri State Teachers College, now Southeast Missouri State University.

"The Navy came up with the idea that if we could get 20 to sign up, we could have our own squadron, our own insignia," said Brune, now 71 and still living in Cape Girardeau.

So on May 11, 1942, the members of the Indian Squadron signed up to become Navy pilots. They spent a year in flight and ground training and most of them "got their wings" in June 1943.

In September 1942, at the University of Iowa Navy pre-flight school, the group was known as the "Flying Indians."

But after their third phase of training, the Navy broke up the group, sending them to Naval Air Stations in St. Louis, Glenview, Ill. and Corpus Christi, Texas. From there, some joined the Marines but most stayed in the Navy, some stationed on aircraft carriers and others on land.

Brune was sent to Glenview, and has seen few of his fellow Navymen since.

"Everybody just scattered to the wind after that," he said. "I've tried to find them, but I can't find some of them."

He knows some have died, and he keeps a folder of newspaper clippings and old photographs commemorating the "squadron." When they signed up in 1942, the story of the Indian Squadron appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Although neither the squadron nor its insignia ever materialized, Brune said most members of the "Flying Indians" didn't feel cheated.

Brune stayed in the Navy for more than 20 years, and at one time was commander of the Tactical Air Support Squadron 792 based in Memphis.

Brune keeps a list of the members of the squadron, checking off the names as he locates them. He said thinking of the upcoming Aviation Days at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport mainly because the Navy Blue Angels are scheduled to perform has sparked a renewed interest in reuniting members of the squadron who came together 50 years ago.

The Blue Angels first performed at Cape Girardeau in June 1968, when a new, 6,500-foot runway was dedicated. They were here again in 1978, and will make their third appearance at the May 9 and 10 Aviation Days.

Tickets now are on sale for the Aviation Days air show. Tickets are $3 per person, ages 5 and older. They are available at Schnucks, JCPenney, and the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office on North Kingshighway. Tickets purchased at the gate on the days of the show will be $5 each. Gates will open at 10 a.m.

The Blue Angels will perform each afternoon. The show also will include the Peterson-Krier Aerobatic Team both days, hot-air balloon races and parachute drops. Also scheduled is an A-10 Warthog aircraft demonstration and an F-117 stealth fighter fly-by.

Several static aircraft will be on display, including T-34 trainers and Hughy and Cobra attack helicopters. Civilian aircraft also will be on display.

The 20 original members of what would have become the Indian Squadron are: Brune, John Luchow, Homer Faulkner, Manley O. Limbaugh, Glenn E. White, Charles S. Scruggs, Lloyd E. Pratt, John R. Bowers, George T.P. Lovelace, William R. Beard, Bob Foster, Herbert Mulkey, Jack T. Robinson, William Van Horn, Albert A. Waggener, Bill Golladay, James S. Dace, Samuel Oliver, Warren Crews and Joe Killian.