Du Quoin WWII pilot flies back in time: B-24 bomber and PT-17 Stearman at Carbondale air show hold special memories for Galen Davis, 90, who sat at their controls as the war ended

Tom Brokaw made it eloquently simple: "The WWII generation shares so many common values: duty, honor, country, personal responsibility and the marriage vow " For better or for worse--it was the last generation in which, broadly speaking, marriage was a commitment.

"I am so fortunate that almost every place we trained my wife (Audrey) was there with me," Galen Davis, 90, of Du Quoin said as he remembered that time during a life well-lived. It all came back to him as Galen and daughter Gail walked under and around two of the aircraft he trained in as World War II ended during last weekend's Carbondale air show.

Gail checks on her father every day and called him last week to tell him she was going to drive him to the Carbondale Airport to see the planes that he flew--A B-24 bomber and a Stearman PT-17--one of the most agile open-cockpit aircraft in aviation history.

How great was that?

As he walked up to the planes the crew that brought these impeccably restored aircraft to Southern Illinois knew they were being approached by someone special. They arranged for a golf cart. They got him a seat so they could talk. They invited him up onto the portable stairs so that he could look straight into the seat where he once sat as a co-pilot of the bomber.

"There were so many (he said of the thousands of airman)." All gave some and some gave all. He makes no more and no less out of the fact that he was trained to fly, but never had to as the war ended.

"After the bombing of Japan I think I was out of it in less than three weeks."

Mr. Davis enlisted in the Civilian Pilot Training after his senior year in high school. The training for the CPT program was in Mt. Vernon. He went through basic training in Chicago. In June of 1943, Mr. Davis left Chicago for Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi. During this six week period of basic training, Galen learned many military basics. He also studied at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. There, they took courses in physics, mathematics, English, and geography. Mr. Davis also learned how to receive and send messages in Morse code while in Syracuse. He traveled to the Air Corps Classification Center in Nashville, Tennessee and trained to become a pilot, then was sent to Maxwell Field in Alabama for officers' training. You took orders so you could learn to give them.

He literally got his wings while falling when one engine on a trainer "blew out" and failed altogether. But, he remembered his training and got the aircraft down safely. He said he never felt insecure flying.

He remembers training in twin-engine combat school and coming back to Southern Illinois to spend Christmas with his wife. By mid-January 1945 he had finished training in the Liberator B-24 heavy bomber and was in Boise, Idaho when he learned of the bombings in Japan that ended the war, truly thankful for the life that allowed him last weekend to be in Carbondale to see those two great aircraft again.