Over Labor Day Weekend, from Aug. 29-Sept. 1, the American Airpower Museum in East Farmingdale, treated Long Island locals to a once in a lifetime experience, taking visitors high above the clouds during its Warbird Weekend: Salute to Airpower.
To kick off the celebration, on Aug. 28, tens of thousands of Long Islanders who worked in local defense plants, but were never given an official “thanks” for a job well done, were honored by the Museum.
In addition, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and the Town of Babylon paid tribute to Josephine Rachiele, 91, a West Babylon resident and an “original” Rosie the Riveter—who worked for the U.S. Army Air Corps at Republic Airport from 1943-1945.
As many of the men went off to fight, during World War II, women like Rachiele assisted the U.S. military back home by working in factories and hangars.
“The best years of my life were spent here [at the airport],” she said.
While working at Republic, Rachiele said she would drill holes and shoot rivets. She even helped in the construction of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, one of the most famous fighter planes of World War II.
According to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, by the end of WWII, more than 15,600 Thunderbolts had been built.
Surrounded by her fellow defense retirees, Rachiele watched as one of the nation’s last flight-worthy P-47s started its engine, taxied out and flew in her honor.
However, the main attraction of Warbird Weekend, wasn’t just the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.
Over the weekend, the museum offered visitors a chance to ride inside some real working World War II Heavy Bombers like the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24 Liberator and P-51 Mustang, which were on loan from the Collings Foundation. The museum also featured vehicles, such as the M8 Greyhound, which helped liberate prisoners at Nazi death camps, on loan from the Museum of American Armor; not to mention the museum’s own C-47 D-Day Flight Experience program and rides in their AT-6 and WACO UPF-7 aircraft.
This year’s event featured an unprecedented gathering of aircraft built on Long Island over the past half century, everything from the Fairchild-Republic A-10 tank buster, which was deployed during the Gulf War, to the Grumman Avenger, which attacked battleships over Imperial Japan.
