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You wouldn't expect to find a world-class air museum in tiny Santa Teresa, just outside El Paso, Texas, but there it sits. The War Eagles Museum is an eye-opening find for nostalgia buffs such as Lt. Col. (Retired) Lloyd Mettes of Oxford, Indiana, who said, "I flew seventy P-38 missions during World War Two - reconnaissance mostly, but a few combat missions." Looking at the black beauty (one of only seven left in the world) sitting on the hangar floor, he said, "This is really an early version of the P-38."
And Terry Sullivan of Las Cruces , New Mexico, recalled, "I had four brothers who flew during World War Two. Only three of them came back. The one who didn't was a navigator aboard a C-47. I guess that's why I'm partial to this plane." Slowly he examined the blue and white DC-3 (civilian version of the C-47) with a 1908 Overland parked beneath the wing.
Bob Magruder, gift shop manager, is knowledgeable and likes to extol the virtues of the airplanes. "Our latest acquisition is a P-51. The machine guns, antennae, radios - even the gun camera - all work," he said. "We also have the only T-51 left in the world. We found it in a junk yard in Djakarta, Indonesia. It was one of only twenty-five ever built. The Air Force never took delivery of it," he added.
A PF-51, "The Friendly Ghost," is the first plane you see when you enter the hangar. A P-51D Mustang, possibly the last known survivor of the Korean War, sits with its wing magazine open. A German Fieseler-Storch sits across the aisle. In 1945, an observation plane pilot shot down one of them with a Colt 45 pistol. This may have been the last dogfight in Europe. Not so ignominious was the rescue of Benito Mussolini by one of these planes. When Il Duce was being held prisoner on a mountain top in the Appenines, Adolph Hitler ordered his rescue, which the pilot effected with only 100 feet of runway for take-off.
As the sound of music from the 30s and 40s wafts through the hangar, you'll be caught up in the era. You'll see authentic V-Mail letters, rationstamp books, non-combatant gas masks, a Spitfire artificial horizon, and a Navy gun camera, even a photo of former President George Bush being picked up by the USS Finback (this display sits in front of an Avenger like the one Bush flew), even a Spotter's Handbook from the cover of Life Magazine (cost 10 cents) of February 2, 1942.
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You'll see a Flying Tiger with its familiar menacing teeth as you traverse the museum. This fighter is best known as part of General Clair Chennault's American volunteer group which FDR made possible by executive order in April, 1941, to defend Burma against the Japanese.
The C-47 cargo and troop carrier became the DC-3 which most commercial airlines flew by 1939. During World War Two, C-47s made 5,000 flights a month from India to China, often leaving the ground at two-minute intervals. You'll see a C-47 in magnificent shape here at the War Eagles hangar. Be sure to look for the beautiful white, blue and orange T-28 Trojan, a Navy plane that was used to train many fighter and bomber pilots. This "affordable P-51" is used by many civilian pilots in modern air shows.
A single-seat MIG 15 fighter, which the Soviets used in Korea against U. S. P-51 Mustangs, sits in the middle of the display. The MIG was a shock to Western intelligence; it had a superior rate of climb, a higher service ceiling, and more cannon power. This marked the first time a Soviet plane performed better than any Western rival.
Not all the planes are military craft, however. An 85 horsepower Cessna hangs from the ceiling. Ruth Deerman and Ruby Hayes won the Powderpuff Derby from Long Beach to Knoxville in it in 1954.