{"id":23701,"date":"2022-10-11T01:42:47","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T01:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=23701"},"modified":"2022-10-11T01:42:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T01:42:48","slug":"wwii-sbd-gunner-flies-again-after-80-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/georgia\/wwii-sbd-gunner-flies-again-after-80-years\/%20","title":{"rendered":"WWII SBD Gunner Flies Again After 80 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – WWII veteran gunner Dick Miralles relives his wartime flying in a restored SBD Dauntless dive bomber 80 years after he fought in the war. The aircraft is maintained and operated by CAF Airbase Georgia in Peachtree City, Ga. (photo courtesy of CAF Airbase Georgia)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WWII Veteran Dick Miralles slid into the gunner\u2019s seat of\nthe SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber almost as easily as he did 80 years ago in the\nSouth Pacific. Miralles, 98, was reliving his wartime experience in a restored\nSBD operated by CAF Airbase Georgia in Peachtree City, Ga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miralles flew in the rear, or gunner, seat of SBDs in\nGuadalcanal in 1943. He survived the war front and supported flight testing in\nHawaii until he returned to civilian life, serving for 30 years with the\nCalifornia Department of Forestry (now known as CAL FIRE). His memoirs are\nrecorded in his book, \u201cWar and Fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He flew from his home in Sacramento, Calif., to enjoy this\nspecial flight at Airbase Georgia, and it was everything he expected it to be.\nAirbase Georgia pilot Peter Hague was equally excited to be helping this\nveteran relive his flying days. Under a beautiful blue Georgia sky, Hague fired\nup the Wright radial engine and the SBD was off on its special mission. Hague\nsaid Miralles enjoyed every minute. After performing a few flight maneuvers,\nHague asked Miralles how he was doing, and he said \u201cmore!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hague ceremonially signed Miralles\u2019 original flight book,\nand Miralles said about the flight, \u201cIt was calm compared to what I was used\nto.\u201d Miralles was joined by his oldest son, Gary, who came from New Bern, N.C.,\nto witness the special occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miralles recounted his training and combat experience,\nexplaining that training in California was basically done with trap and skeet\nshooting. It was very important that the gunners were trained not to shoot off\nthe tails of their own airplanes.  His\nplane was hit once over Bougainville but returned safely. He said it appeared\nto be a random Japanese rifle shot that took out one cylinder of the engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This heartwarming event in honor of this WWII veteran came\nabout because Patricia ODonnell of Havertown, Penn., bought a flight on the\nAirbase Georgia SBD at an airshow. She had several family members who served in\nWWI and WWII and was so moved by her flight and the history of the aircraft\nthat she offered to buy another flight for a veteran if Airbase Georgia could\narrange it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an email to Airbase Georgia, she said, \u201cAs I grew older,\nI became very aware of what a good life I had and how I owed a lot of that to\nthe men and women who served in WWII for basically saving the free world. The\nmore I learn, the more I’m in awe of what amazing things people accomplished.\nMy ride in the Dauntless was one of the best things I’ve ever done, and I have\ntotal respect for those who flew her in battle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entire event in Peachtree City was recorded by George\nRetelas, director of a WWII documentary, \u201cEleven\u201d, www.ElevenTheMovie.com,\nabout Air Group Eleven that included Dick and George\u2019s grandfather (also George\nRetelas). Retelas plans a short feature about Miralles\u2019 flight at Airbase Georgia.\nThe same aircraft will be featured in Airbase Georgia\u2019s WWII Heritage Day Oct.\n8, at the airbase headquarters, and rides will be available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – WWII veteran gunner Dick Miralles relives his wartime flying in a restored SBD Dauntless dive bomber 80 years after he fought in the war. The aircraft is maintained and operated by CAF Airbase Georgia in Peachtree City, Ga. (photo courtesy of CAF Airbase Georgia) WWII Veteran Dick Miralles slid into the gunner\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-georgia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SBD-with-Miralles-rev-2022-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23703,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23701\/revisions\/23703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}