Bomber Crew Plus One

B-25: Heavenly Body

For this shot to come to fruition, I had to travel about 500 miles round trip in a 24-hour period in order to gain access to this beautiful plane,” Heavenly Body,” and her volunteer crew.

There was an annual fly-in/dinner & dance taking place at an old WWII training (now private) airfield called Eagle Field, in Central California. The advantage of having this party of 600-plus revelers was that I got to choose several vintage jeeps and even a dummy 500-pound bomb for the photo.

The original plan was to shoot the plane and her volunteer crew at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles some evening, but the airport administration wanted about $800.00 from me before allowing us to do our photo shoot. The next-best alternative was to follow the plane and crew up north for the prescheduled reunion. It's strange that in spite of all the inconvenience of driving those 500 miles round trip in 24 hours to get the shot, it worked out far better than the first plan of shooting locally.

A short history of the plane: Since the plane was built close to end of the war, she never saw action and went directly from the production line into service as a trainer. After her stint in the Air Force she was sold as surplus and went on to testing for suitability in fire suppression work. Though the B-25 was not as suitable as the Consolidated PB4Y (B-24) was found to be, it was perfect for a movie being made called “Catch 22.” After production was over, the B-25 went up for sale and was purchased by the current owner, Mike Pupich in 1972.

Mike has a volunteer crew of devoted people who constantly work on the aircraft in order to keep her airworthy. They accompany her on board working events and venues around the West Coast. Three of them are pictured in the shot outside the plane; the fourth guy happened to be strolling by wearing vintage aviator attire while we were shooting that evening. After being quickly relieved of his cake and mixed drink, he was hustled up into the bombardier’s station with strict instructions to "freeze."

The dog, Emma, was a mutt I borrowed from one of the guests at the event. She was totally uncooperative during the first four tries at getting her to pose. Finally, at the end of the shooting session and after one last try at placing her on the seat, Emma just gave up and went to sleep, exhausted from all the attention and her efforts to get out of posing. She looks great just lying curled up on the passenger seat.

Eric Curry
June 2007





	A photographer named Eric Curry had contacted us in order to shoot this amazing photo of"Heavenly Body" for his series of Americana, below is his narrative. The three people on the ground are some of the crew members; Dave Peters, Chad Sisk & Douglas Aiken, the gentleman in the nose was a fellow reveller.
B-25: Heavenly Body For this shot to come to fruition, I had to travel about 500 miles round trip in a 24-hour period in order to gain access to this beautiful plane,” Heavenly Body,” and her volunteer crew. There was an annual fly-in/dinner & dance taking place at an old WWII training (now private) airfield called Eagle Field, in Central California. The advantage of having this party of 600-plus revelers was that I got to choose several vintage jeeps and even a dummy 500-pound bomb for the photo. The original plan was to shoot the plane and her volunteer crew at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles some evening, but the airport administration wanted about $800.00 from me before allowing us to do our photo shoot. The next-best alternative was to follow the plane and crew up north for the prescheduled reunion. It's strange that in spite of all the inconvenience of driving those 500 miles round trip in 24 hours to get the shot, it worked out far better than the first plan of shooting locally. A short history of the plane: Since the plane was built close to end of the war, she never saw action and went directly from the production line into service as a trainer. After her stint in the Air Force she was sold as surplus and went on to testing for suitability in fire suppression work. Though the B-25 was not as suitable as the Consolidated PB4Y (B-24) was found to be, it was perfect for a movie being made called “Catch 22.” After production was over, the B-25 went up for sale and was purchased by the current owner, Mike Pupich in 1972. Mike has a volunteer crew of devoted people who constantly work on the aircraft in order to keep her airworthy. They accompany her on board working events and venues around the West Coast. Three of them are pictured in the shot outside the plane; the fourth guy happened to be strolling by wearing vintage aviator attire while we were shooting that evening. After being quickly relieved of his cake and mixed drink, he was hustled up into the bombardier’s station with strict instructions to "freeze." The dog, Emma, was a mutt I borrowed from one of the guests at the event. She was totally uncooperative during the first four tries at getting her to pose. Finally, at the end of the shooting session and after one last try at placing her on the seat, Emma just gave up and went to sleep, exhausted from all the attention and her efforts to get out of posing. She looks great just lying curled up on the passenger seat. Eric Curry June 2007 www.americanprideandpassion.com
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