"YOU REALLY USED TO FLY ONE OF THOSE?!..."

STORY OUTLINE

Richard Bopp, a bright young man who, after a few too many arrests for speeding in his 1930’s hot-rod coupe, is sent to military school. Upon graduation, he and his life-long friend, Jack, work at the local boardwalk amusement park. While working on the family’s roller-coaster and carousel on the beach boardwalk, the two young men, typical of their age, begin to question what they should be doing with their lives.

With a war raging across Europe, slowly enveloping the world, Richard feels the same calling to serve as his father, a Texas Ranger who died when Richard was just a boy. Richard explains his theory to Jack that Americans will have to get involved at some point to stop Nazi Germany, and with their training from military school they can contribute a lot more with their skills, and possibly help save the world while they’re at it.

After talking with recruiters, Jack is enthused and wants to work as a mechanic on the “hot-rod” of the skies, the fighter plane. Richard, on the other hand, is much more interested in flying one. Having read about the American pilots that volunteered to fly and fight in England, Richard knew without a doubt what he wanted to do.

Though the U.S. is not yet at war, Richard and Jack both decide to enlist. Jack is quickly sent off for training as a mechanic, but Richard, with no open spots in the area flight school, is not called up for duty. He resumes life as usual as he waits to be called upon.

Back to his routine life, without intending it, Richard begins to fall fast for a neighborhood girl, Charlotte. Charlotte falls for Richard as fast as he falls for her, and within a whirlwind twenty-eight days the two are engaged and married. Soon after the two have their first child, a daughter, Virginia. Richard is now a family man.

Then, with sudden brutality and without warning, Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese. America is officially at war. Richard is called up immediately and must now leave his wife and newborn daughter to begin his training and join the war over in Europe.

While Richard is in basic flight training, the Air Force command implements the ‘Pointblank Directive’, with the bold objective of destroying the German war machine in preparation for the Allied invasion on D-Day through daylight bombing raids over Germany. The assembly of the largest air armada in history, known as the mighty 8th Air Force, soon to become an armada of 300,000 men and women, is underway.

As Richard advances to fighter training, armadas of American bombers are being attacked by German fighter planes that are flying unescorted into Germany on a daily basis. The losses are becoming unsustainable with nearly one out of every four bombers destroyed by enemy fire on each mission.

The capable fighters currently escorting the bombers have a limited fuel range capacity, keeping them from flying with the bombers for the entire mission. The P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt fighters are forced to turn back for fuel mid-way through each mission. The German fighters have learned to simply wait for the American fighters to turn back, then move in for the kill on the bombers, with devastating results.

The need for a long-range fighter becomes paramount, and the Strategic Bomber Command requests a new long-range fighter for the Air Force. The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is fast-tracked for development, as the first long-range fighter capable of flying all the way into Germany and back. Training of the new pilots that will be flying this new fighter is also fast-tracked, including Richard and his advanced flight class.

As one of the highest regarded trainees in his class, ranked a sergeant with a group of cadets under his watch, Richard believes he’s right on track to become a top pilot, and possibly an ace, in the war while flying the hot new Mustang. Topping off Richard’s enthusiasm is a visit to his training base by President Roosevelt, to see the new base and meet the future pilots preparing for war. Writing back home, Richard tells Charlotte he is on top of the world and is ready to fight, win the war, and get back home to his wife and newborn.

Just as the trainees are beginning to hone their skills in the new Mustang, one of Richard’s favorite cadets is forced to bail out on a training mission and is killed when he hits the propeller of his out-of-control fighter. Shocked by the accident, everyone is hit with the reality of the danger they face with each flight, and for the first time in his life, Richard is forced to reflect on his own mortality before entering the air war.

Pressing on, Richard’s high scores during training garner him the prestigious assignment to the most successful fighter group of the war upon graduation. Richard is sent to England to fly with the infamous Fourth Fighter Group, formed by the very men Richard had read about, the American’s that volunteered to fly for England, becoming the first American’s to fly in the war. The legacy of the Fighting 4th was already legendary, with 4th Fighter Group pilots like Don Gentile, Don Blakeslee and Duane Beeson making the cover of magazines and newspapers back in the states.

After arriving at the Fourth Fighter Group airbase in England, Richard discovers he is assigned to the locker and bunk previously occupied by the famed ace he read about in Time magazine, Don Gentile. Honored, prideful, and sure of his talent as a pilot, Richard declares his intention to continue the streak of the leading ace, and aims to beat his famous record. Cheered and jeered by the guys in the barracks, a sense of duty and pride fill Richard, a feeling he imagines his father felt as a Texas Ranger.

Richard quickly adapts to life on the airbase in England and begins forming friendships with the ace pilots that mentor him in preparation for the epic air battles he is about to experience. Richard bonds with one particular ace, Joseph Lang, who shows Richard the ropes of life at war. Of particular interest to Richard are Joseph’s daughter’s baby shoes, which he wears around his neck as a good luck charm on every mission. The two men share the common bond of having infant daughters back at home they plan to return to, and encourage each other to out fly the enemy in order to do so. A high energy permeates the base with the daily air battles at epic proportion, flying daily missions with over 1,000 bombers and 1,000 fighters flying deep into the heart of a heavily defended Nazi Germany.

Over and over, day after day, entire crews are lost, hundreds captured. But the U.S. is gaining supremacy and the men know it. The P-51 Mustang is destroying five German fighters to every one Mustang, and the new tactic of strafing ground targets on the return flight from each mission is further destroying the German infrastructure. Richard is flying with many aces in his group, and is flying wingman to a triple ace. Richard feels confident, with a healthy dose of fear of the unknown dog-fighting he is about to face, and what the epic aerial battle will really be like.

With just ten days left before D-Day, it is absolutely critical for Richard and all fighter pilots to defend the bombers to be sure they achieve their goal of destroying critical targets that will keep American soldiers from dying when the Allies invade Normandy in less than two weeks. There is no question among the fighter pilots of their duty.

On his first mission, Richard learns that while he may have been at the top of his class in flight school, all he has learned amounts to little when surrounded with enemy fighters at break-neck speeds. Richard is able to contribute to the dog-fight by thwarting an enemy fighter and saving a fellow pilot, but is unable to stop another tragedy from happening. Despite the thrill and exhilaration of the mission, witnessing first-hand as one of his new friends is shot down and killed is a sobering experience for Richard.

Right back at it with little time to reflect or mourn the loss, on Richard’s second mission, he is again able to keep an enemy fighter from shooting down one of his squadron mates, but is still adjusting to the intense maneuvers that pursuing and evading requires.

Then, on only his third mission, and his first deep in the heart of Germany, a battle of epic proportions awaits. The U.S. is attempting to destroy the most heavily defended targets in all of Germany, the oil refineries that produce the life-blood of the German war machine. Flying wingman to his buddy Joseph, Richard and his squadron engage over forty enemy fighters. Struggling to keep up with the extreme maneuvers of his mentor, Richard does all he can to cover Joseph’s wing.

The battle is so intense that the fighter squadrons become scattered all over the skies as they pursue enemy fighters in all directions. Richard loses Joseph amidst the chaos while helping other pilots, and ends up separated from his squadron after evading a chasing enemy fighter up to 30,000 feet. Richard finds himself alone and isolated with little visibility in the increasing haze below, and anxiously calls to the rest of his squadron over the radio, but is unable to visually locate anyone.

Trained to return to base when isolated and vulnerable to attack with no support, Richard is forced to give up the search for other aircraft and makes his way back to England. However, while over Northern France, just before reaching the English Channel, he realizes his Mustang is down to its last drop of fuel. Unsure if his fuel tank had taken a hit in the battle, and knowing he doesn’t have enough fuel to cross the channel, he is now forced to bail out of the aircraft over enemy-occupied territory. After getting a grasp on the reality of his situation, he spots a target of opportunity, points his Mustang at a Nazi supply train, opens the canopy and climbs out of his fighter. He jumps, hoping to land unnoticed. His plane hits the mark as the explosion draws the attention of German troops, and Richard is captured immediately upon landing. For him, as the German troops say, “for you, the war is over”.

After interrogation in Paris, Richard, stunned and numb, is sent to the infamous Stalag Luft III, the German prisoner of war camp where all air force officers are sent. Richard arrives to dire conditions and a devastated morale at the camp due to the shock of the recent killing of fifty escapees by the German Gestapo. The “great escape” turned devastating when all escapees were shot and killed after being caught. Now a prisoner, Richard sinks into the universal depression as he feels he has failed his family, his squadron, and his country, with no hope of becoming the ace pilot he thought may become during the war. Feeling helpless and empty, as he sits imprisoned in a foreign land, Richard’s thoughts turn to his wife and child.

Back home, Charlotte receives a devastating Western Union telegram stating only “your husband has been reported Missing in Action”. With no news or details of what has happened to her husband, Charlotte enters a prison of her own, a prison of uncertainty, unsure of what has happened to Richard, how it happened, if he is dead or alive, critically wounded, captured or killed.

Over the course of several months as a prisoner of war, Richard loses weight from malnutrition, and loses his teeth due to lack of hygiene products in the camp. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s health is failing just as rapidly from the constant stress of not knowing the fate of her husband.

As the Allies gain supremacy on the ground in Europe, Hitler realizes the prisoner of war camps may be liberated at any time. Unwilling to allow any prisoners go free, he orders they be marched further from the front lines. Richard and the others are forced to hike through blizzards of the coldest winter in recent German history, with many men dying along the way.

Just when all seems lost, with death all around them, General Patton’s army rolls through Europe and liberates the prisoners of war. Richard is still alive and now free, with the first sign of hope in his life for nearly a year.

Within days Richard is sent back to the U.S. and is re-united with his wife and child. Charlotte is overjoyed to see her husband’s face again, regardless of how emaciated he looks. The two can do nothing more than hold each other, unable to find the words to express their emotions.

With the war finally over, Charlotte sees Richard’s return as a new lease on life. Richard, however, can hardly muster up a smile despite the war’s end and refuses to see anyone that wants to visit them. Unable to understand his feelings of failure from the war, paired with the effects of the prison camp, Richard is visibly not the man he was before the war.

Some good news comes when Charlotte tells Richard she is pregnant with their second child. In an attempt to make a fresh start Richard and Charlotte pack up and move south to sunny Miami, Florida. With his military background, Richard quickly finds work as a motorcycle officer for the Miami police department. Despite the change of scenery and new job, Richard still isn’t really there, not for his work, not for his friends, and not for his family.

Richard does find, however, an outlet for his despair. Contemplating how he entered the war at the top of his flight class and returned from the war as a skin and bones prisoner of war, Richard escapes in the speed of the motorcycle and places little value on his life as he sees it.

Charlotte calls on the one person she thinks Richard will listen to, Jack. When the two meet for the first time since the war, Jack is shocked to see the state Richard is in. Jack listens to Richard go on and on about his “wartime failure”, questioning what all the training was for and what all the time spent away from his wife and child meant. “What was the point”, Richard explains. When Jack confronts Richard about his self-pity, Richard explodes and fights with his good friend. Disgusted, Jack leaves Richard alone with his misery.

A senior officer from the police force, after witnessing Richard speed excessively by his patrol car as he’s done several times before, feels compelled to talk with Richard. The elder officer tells Richard that he is not living up to his duty, and not doing anyone any favors with his self-destructive behavior. “Don’t you get it…you are the lucky one”, the officer tells Richard, “you survived and have the chance to live the life that all those that did not return from the war will never have… including my son who was killed on D-Day”. To this Richard simply responds, “I should’ve been your son”.

Richard gets up and walks out of the diner, gets onto his motorcycle and speeds out of the parking lot. As he roars down the street his thoughts return to the war, the visions of his bail-out and capture triggering him to hit the throttle harder. Just as he starts to approach an intersection, oblivious to a yellow light, he is blind-sided by a car, taking his rear wheel out from behind him.

Charlotte gets a call from the police station, and is taken right back to the sinking feeling she got from the telegram with the news that her husband was missing in action. Unwilling to lose Richard again, she grabs little Virginia and rushes to the hospital.

At the hospital, Charlotte meets with the elder officer who reassures her that Richard, amazingly, is fine with just a few scratches.

Upon leaving the hospital, Charlotte, longing for the return of the man with whom she fell in love, pleads with Richard to seek help and get past the war.

Back at home, an Air Force official shows up to see Richard. The official tells Richard he has tracked him down to his current address to let him know he is the recipient of a prisoner of war medal and a victory medal for the men he saved in the war, and the supply train he destroyed on his final mission. He adds that Richard missed the award ceremony since he failed to respond to several letters.

Richard refuses to accept the medals, and tells the official that he doesn’t deserve any such thing, and any honors given should go to the successful pilots from the war such as Joseph Lang, Ralph Hofer, or Robert Kenyon.

When the official tells Richard that all the pilots he just mentioned were killed in action while Richard was a prisoner of war, Richard is floored. The official takes the medals out of his bag and tells Richard that he served his country well and is worthy of the honor bestowed upon him. The official then gestures to the doorway where Charlotte, visibly pregnant, is standing holding Virginia’s hand, and tells Richard there are some other people that are awfully proud of him too.

Disappointed in Richard’s reaction, the official places the medals on a table and turns to leave. Before he’s out of the door, he stops and turns back, reaches into his bag, and tells Richard there was one more thing he was instructed to give him. The official pulls out a pair of baby shoes, the same baby shoes worn around Joseph Lang’s neck in the war.

After the official leaves, Charlotte walks over to comfort Richard. After a long silence, Richard, still visibly shaken by the news of all the men in his squadron that were killed just ten days after he was captured, turns to Charlotte with a look of revelation, “If I wouldn’t have been captured…I’d be dead.” He takes Charlotte in his arms and embraces her and his young daughter as if it were his first day back from the war.

Richard then tells Charlotte he’s got to go talk to Jack. Seeing the revelation in his expression, Charlotte simply smiles approvingly. Richard finds Jack in the hangar of the local flying club working on a P-51 Mustang used in local air races. Taking a serious tone, Richard tells Jack that he now knows he most likely would have been killed on D-Day had he not become a prisoner of war. He goes on to explain that he understands he has the chance to live the life his friends who were killed no longer can, and wants to make things right.

Jack, still shaken from the previous fight, doesn’t appear to be convinced and is unresponsive. The two men stand looking at the P-51 Mustang Jack was working on. Richard walks around the fighter, admiring the lines of the plane as he first did in training. Richard comments “it’s still a beautiful plane, isn’t it?”

Looking at Richard, Jack smiles and nods toward the open cockpit of the Mustang. Without saying a word, Richard steps up on the wing and works his way up and into the cockpit. As Richard is settling in, Jack quickly prepares the plane for flight. The two friends nod to each other as Richard fires up the engine. Jack does a final visual check and gives Richard the thumb’s up, Richard giving the thumbs up back to Jack. Richard then slowly maneuvers the fighter out onto the runway.

With clearance from the control tower for take-off, Richard sits paused in the Mustang, pulls out the pair of baby shoes and puts them over his neck, then powers up the throttle and roars up to full speed as the plane lifts into the air. As he flies up through dark distant clouds, Richard performs a barrel roll. As the plane completes the roll, he begins to fly with confidence. With the first full smile on his face since the war, he begins flying higher and higher, climbing above the dark clouds that, once broken free, reveals a stunning clear sky. Flying to his ultimate return, Richard is finally home.

Flash-forward many years later as Richard, now a grandfather, with the medals he once refused pinned to his jacket, sits with his family in the stands of an air show at the local airbase. A gloriously restored P-51 Mustang flies by the stands, engine roaring, shaking the ground, as his grandson looks up to him with wonder-filled wide eyes and says…

“You mean you really used to fly one of those!?”

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