AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2021 - 37

aircraft never had a chance to cool down.
This led to his friends and family nicknaming him " Hot Engines John. "
As the years passed, Mark identified
with his father's war experiences in the
B-25 and looked for an opportunity to
not only fly in one but to give his father
an opportunity to get back into a B-25. In
1983, that opportunity surfaced when Mark
arranged to have his father fly with Steve
Hinton at Planes of Fame Air Museum in
Chino, California. Steve put John in the
right seat of the B-25 while Mark watched
his father fly a B-25 for the last time.

He longed for the
opportunity to experience
firsthand the Mitchell's
flight characteristics,
which his father had
talked about.
Mark thought that was to be his last
exposure to the B-25. However, he longed
for the opportunity to experience firsthand
the Mitchell's flight characteristics, which
his father had talked about, and the history
of the aircraft that took his father into combat during World War II.
On Christmas Day 2019, Mark's wife,
Marcy, and his son Peter gave him the gift
of a lifetime-a gift certificate for a B-25
SIC type rating course.
On July 11, 2020, Mark earned his
SIC type rating in the B-25 Panchito and
joined his father in the exclusive club of
B-25 pilots.
Both of Mark's sons, Peter and Philip,
are pilots. Peter owns a Beechcraft
Bonanza A36 and Philip is an aerospace
engineer. In 2000, John pinned wings on
another grandson, U.S. Air Force Academy
graduate and future F-16 pilot, 2nd Lt.
Matt Glynn-three generations of pilots
in the Osterkamp family.
delawareaviationmuseum.org
is a B-25 flight instructor for the Delaware Aviation Museum
Foundation in Georgetown, Delaware.
CALVIN PEACOCK

ON RECORD |

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE in Hawaii in 1958; the C-54 was a part of the 1502nd Air

Transport Wing.

Searching for history
Tomb of the Unknowns 100-year anniversary sparks search
B Y J U L I E S U M M E R S WA L K E R

MARK MILLER is a former sentinel at the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington
National Cemetery in Fort Myer, Virginia.
He stood guard on that hallowed ground
for a year of his four-year service to the
U.S. Army. Now, as the 100-year anniversary of the Tomb approaches-it was
established in November 1921 after the end
of World War I-Miller has been tasked
with finding information on the flights
of the " Unknowns " in the World War II
Trans-Pacific, Korean, and Vietnam wars.
He is the historical aircraft project director for the Society of the Honor Guard
centennial celebration and is looking for
information on the aircraft and crew of
those missions.
" Over the past few years of working on
this project, I have only been able to find
high-level information regarding these
flights, " Miller said.  " When I first took on
this project, I thought it was going to be
straightforward and easy. I thought that

by now, all historical records were digitized and stored at a central location, and
all that needed to be done was to 'search'
these records. I was dead wrong. As odd as
it may sound, logbooks in those days were
destroyed after 90 to 180 days unless something went wrong with the flight. The only
documents that have been kept for the long
term are records pertaining to the origin
of the aircraft from the manufacturer, and
maintenance records. I have spent the last
several years working with the historians
at Maxwell, Travis, and Hickam air force
bases, and have exhausted every avenue
searching for this information. "  
If you took part in any of these events or
were crew members on the aircraft, please
contact Miller (markmiller@tombguard.
org) so " we can capture your experiences
and share them with America. "
tombguard.org/centennial
EMAIL

julie.walker@aopa.org

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 37
http://www.delawareaviationmuseum.org http://www.tombguard.org/centennial http://www.aopa.org/pilot
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2021
