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The End
The Return Trip
After 10 days of meetings, the air show, parties and sight seeing my flight out of Brest was scheduled to depart at 6:45 a.m. (Air France #7737) on Wednesday, 8 December 1999, so I left the auberge at about 5:00 a.m. It's pitch dark at that hour, and there are no street lights in those little French villages, so there I was with my luggage, stumbling across a cobblestone street trying to head for my car. I finally thought about the self-lock button on the key ring, got it out and punched it, and the parking lights flashed, and I headed for them! It was bitter cold and damp, so it took a while for the heat to come on enough to defog the windows. I got to the airport in plenty of time, checked my bags through to D/FW and boarded the aircraft.
At the Charles de Gaulle Paris Airport, I didn't have to worry about my bags, so I retraced my steps of 10 days ago back to the American Airlines terminal in Concourse A and found the gate where Flight #49 would board. With a slight fever I'd been running since Sunday, I was feeling a little chilled. As we flew over southern Greenland, and then again over Newfoundland and Quebec, with the endless snow fields there, I was cold the whole way home. That had to be the longest 12 hour 20 minute flight I've ever experienced.
The Last Landing
After arriving home, there were several days of e-mails from various people, telling of their experiences after the air show and on their way home. We also heard from the French about the disposition of the last of their aircraft. On 15 December 1999, EV Stephane AUBRY delivered #34 to BAN Hycres for storage, and eventual scrappage, the sad fate of most all aircraft. On the next day, LV Eric BERTHAN delivered #10 to BAN Dugny where the aircraft will be inducted into the French Air and Space Museum. The message said this was the last landing for the Crusaders. That leads me to believe that the remainder of Squadron l2F's F-8s had already been transferred to Ryeres. I really believe these aircraft are stored at BAN Cuers-Pierrefeu which is just a few kilometers outside Hyeres. This is where all of their F4U Corsairs and other Indochina era aircraft were stored when we were there in l965-66.
This story could go on and on, but I know you have the picture by now; this was the trip of a lifetime, even for those of us who spent lots of our lifetime traveling. Most of the memories just cannot be put into words.
Au revoir!
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