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Message IEW Newsletter Educate * Inspire * Honor The D-Day Doll tips her wing to the IEW members as they accept the Distinguished Unit Award  CAF Headquarter Conference  IEW Wins Distinguished Unit Award  Consolidated P-30  IEW Staff Member News Volume 35 No. 4 April 2025

IEW Newsletter 2 Upcoming IEW Activities Apr 5 Hangar Day Staff Meeting Rides: Doll & T-6 Apr 9 Monthly Dinner Meeting Apr 12-13 March AFB Air Show Apr 25-26 Flabob’s 100th Anniversary S M T W Th F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 S M T W Th F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Federal Holidays are marked as S M T W Th F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 April 2025 May 2025 June 2025 May 3 Hangar Day Staff Meeting May 10 V-E Day May 14 Monthly Dinner Meeting May 17 Torrance Armed Forces Flyover May 26 Freedom Committee Flyover June 7 Hangar Day Staff Meeting June 11 Monthly Dinner Meeting April 14: Air Force Reserve Birthday April 23: Army Reserve Birthday April 30: National Military Brats Day April 2025 4.8 Erik Lindgren 4.23 Mike Rothmeier Colonels, we really would like to wish you a Happy Birthday on your special day. PLEASE let the editor know the date so you are not left out . Thank you Aviation 1sts 4.11.1921 Bill 2815 is introduced in the House of Rep-resentatives by Fre-derick C. Hicks, creat-ing a Bureau of Civil Aviation in Depart-ment of Commerce. 4.1.1944 The USAAF 20th Air Force was activated.4.4.1946 Sears, Roebuck & Company begins a new, regular weekly overnight shipment of women's clothing from New York to the West Coast by air-plane. 4.6.1967 Trans World Airlines (TWA) becomes the first American airline to have a fleet com-posed entirely of jet aircraft. 4.9.1969 The first UK assem-bled a supersonic transport, Concorde 002, making a suc-cessful first flight from England. 

IEW Newsletter 3 On Feb. 28 and March 1, 2025, CAF HQ held their annual Confer-ence. It was attended by ten of the approximately 80 Inland Em-pire Wing members and I believe that all of us would agree that it was well worth our while to experience the excitement and the camaraderie of the event. I always walk away a bit more ener-gized when I see what’s happening throughout the CAF, to speak with members from all over the country about their issues (almost identical to ours), to make new friends and to spend time with old friends. Mike and Linda Lindgren, Brandy and James Stone, Mary Schulz, Mike Rothmeier, Gary Stark, Steve Rose, and Susan and I represented your Inland Empire Wing. THANK YOU colonels for your time and dedication. The conference consists of two days of break out sessions where we all choose what we wanted to learn and bring those lessons and ideas back for implementation at our Wing. Sessions such as: Fundraising, Operations, Maintenance, Membership, Fi-nances, Insurance, Recruiting/Retention/Regaining members, Safety, Restoration pro-jects, Cost of Flying calculations (I think that Steve got a good handle on how to im-prove our own calculations), Rides, Pilot Scholarships, Museum Operation, Unit Leader concepts and many others are presented by CAF HQ staff, who are leading those ef-forts every day. At lunch on Friday we were treated with a presentation by a friend of mine, Dr. Eric Downing, on practical strategies for building strong volunteer teams, understanding motivation and overcoming barriers to execution. Eric is sought by corporations around the country on how to improve their own principles and practices. He’s agreed to put out videos of his presentations and guide the CAF on how to utilize the same lessons that he presents to his corporate clients. On Saturday an Awards session was held during lunch where the top performing indi-viduals and Units were recognized and the Inland Empire Wing was one of just three of the eight Wings to earn the “OUTSTANDING UNIT AWARD”! To achieve this award, first of all it takes performing among the top few Wings in the CAF, and performing so well that HQ notices our efforts! I can’t begin to thank you enough for all of the OUT-STANDING work (as evidenced by the award!) that you do for the Wing! CAF Headquarter Conference Craig O’Mara Wing Leader April 2025 CONFERENCE Continued on page 5

IEW Newsletter 4 C-53 Commemoration Plaque and Service Recognition As part of the IEW’s C-53, D-Day Doll 80th Birthday celebra-tion, we created a Commemora-tion Plaque to be displayed in the museum. The plaque will recognize those individuals who have served in some capacity in any branch of the U.S. military. The honoree does not have to have seen war time action. Small plates fastened to the larger plaque are still available at $80.00 each. For an application contact David Malmad at dmal-mad613@gmail.com.  PX-Lite has a wide variety of memorabilia for WW-II and airplane enthusiasts. Stop in the Museum or have purchases shipped to you. Call Greg or Kathy Fernandez to order. Newsletter Deadline Members and friends interested in submitting articles/pictures/tidbits of information for the newsletter, please e-mail them to Shirley Kerr: starsprt@earthlink.net by Sat, April 12th for the May 2025 newsletter. Timely articles as well as articles of interest are welcome at any time. The newsletter is a “work in progress”. Your “guest writer” articles are appreciated as soon as you have them available. Filler stories will be placed in the newsletter as needed. Your input helps to create an in-teresting and educational newsletter.  To access the CAF-IEW YouTube Channel, type: “Inland Empire Wing” into the YouTube search window. Info call Col. Phil Decker 619.573.7768 Book: Mission Accomplished The D-Day Doll’s 2019 trip to Normandy for the 75th Anniversary is recounted in a book “Mission Accomplished”. Available on Amazon. Author is IEW’s Chief Pilot Steve Rose  Thank You Photographers Photographers: Brandy Stone Chris Clarke, Pat McCollam, Kevin Hong, headquarters photographer, and Editor Cover Photo Bill Leech designed the April newslet-ter cover using a picture provided by Kevin Hong, CAF photographer taken at the CAF 2025 Conference.  April 2025 Operational IEW Fleet Status D-Day Doll Up and Operational L-4 Waiting on fuel repair T-6 Annual inspection PT-22 Up and Operational Staff Car Operational Ford Truck Operational Jeep Operational CAF Inland Empire Wing The Inland Empire Wing (IEW) is a wing of the Commemo-rative Air Force. Its hangar is located in Hanger "S" on 6936 Flight Road at the Riverside Municipal Airport in Riverside, California. The IEW's hangar and WWII museum currently display a T-6 Harvard II, an L-4 “Scout”, a PT-22, and our C-53 “Sky Trooper”, the “D-Day Doll”. The IEW is a purely volunteer-driven organization. The mem-bers and volunteers dedicate their efforts to a variety of local projects, such as the maintenance and restoration of WW-II aircraft, memorial flights at special events, contribution of museum displays to educate the public, and providing support and a presence at SoCal air shows.  Book a Flights in a Warbird C-53 D-Day Doll or the T-6. Pilots trained in this plane during WW-II. https://www.inlandempirecaf.com/book-a-flight Info: Gary Stark 951.443.1000 Inland Empire Wing is Now on Instagram Handle: CAF_IEW_Riverside https://www.instagram.com/inland_empire_wing_caf/ Visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= 100063598572247 IEW Website https://www.inlandempirecaf.com/ The D-Day Doll tips her wing to the IEW members as they accept the Distinguished Unit Award  CAF Headquarter Conference  IEW Wins Distinguished Award  Consolidated P-30  IEW Staff Member News Volume 35 No. 4 April 2025 Educate * Inspire * Honor

IEW Newsletter 5 CONFERENCE Continued from page 3 IEW Newsletter Craig April 2025 IEW is a Winner! Pictures identified on page 9 When you come to the Wing, do you do your usual outstanding job and think that no one notices - that effort IS noticed and appreci-ated by your Wing Staff AND by HQ! I always thought that the annual HQ Staff conference was ONLY open to Unit Staff, but I learned that all Wing members are welcome, in fact, encouraged to attend. I’d like to invite all of you to take up that invita-tion and represent the IEW at next year’s conference. I really think that you’ll come away as excited about being a member of such an outstanding organization and re-membering why you joined the CAF in the first place. I hope to see many more of you there next year! Thank you again for all that YOU do to make us an “OUTSTANDING UNIT”. Headquarters 2025 Conference

IEW Newsletter 6 IEW Newsletter April 2025 Ever Hear about the Consolidated P-30? CONSOLIDATED P-30 Continued on page 7 One of the enjoyable as-pects about aviation history is discovering interesting and unusual aircraft that most people have never heard about. This particu-lar plane, the P-30 and its variants, is one of these, to be sure. It is actually a “landmark” plane, as it set several “firsts” in the US Army Air Corps inventory for a brief time during the 1930’s. This period was one of great change and de-velopment in both aircraft and aircraft en-gine design and many types were being tried and tested to modernize our fledgling air force. It was also during a time of great fiscal austerity on the part of our govern-ment’s military spending during the Great Depression. Tragically, it was also a time when our future enemies were developing and spending a great part of their funds on their militaries. Alas, we were to find out how far we lagged behind in this contest by the time of Pearl Harbor. The Consolidated P-30 began with a design based on the Lockheed Altair, the YP-24, in 1931 by R. J. Woods with the Detroit Air-craft Corp., which was part of the Lockheed Corp. However, Detroit Aircraft folded and Woods was soon hired by Consolidated Air-craft. He continued to work on his design, becoming the Model 25 and then called it the YP-25. Incidentally, the YP prefix stood for service test (Y) pursuit type (P). An at-tack version was also made, the Y1A-A-11. All this eventually became the PB-2 and PB-2A and also the P-30 (it all sounds a little confusing, doesn’t it!). The PB prefix stood for Pursuit-Biplace, with biplace meaning two-seat, for the pilot and a rear gunner. This design was a significant departure from previous fighters and featured a low-wing cantilever monoplane configuration, Col. Chris Clarke Museum Curator enclosed cockpits (with heating for the pi-lot) and inward retracting landing gear. In-stead of the standard radial engine, it fea-tured a water-cooled 700 hp Curtiss Con-queror V-1570-61 V12 engine (turning a three-bladed propeller) equipped with a GE turbo supercharger for flying at high alti-tude. The plane’s top speed was 274 mph at 25,000 ft and had a ceiling of 28,000 ft, which was remarkable at the time. Wing-span was 43 ft 11 in and the length was 30 ft. Armament was two .30 cal machine guns firing through the propeller and a flexi-ble .30 cal machine gun in the rear cockpit. 170 lbs in bombs could also be carried ex-ternally. The A-11 attack version differed in that it lacked the turbo supercharger and had a two-blade propeller, but it carried two addi-tional .30 cal machine guns in the wings along with an external 400 lb bomb load. Because of the intense cold at extreme alti-tudes, the plane was uncomfortable to fly over 20 to 25,000 ft, but it out flew every-thing else out there! Indeed, in March 1937, the plane set a hi-altitude record, flying to 39,300 ft. Unfortunately, the biplace concept didn’t work out well, as the rear gunner often be-came sick, or even blacked out, when the plane made high-speed maneuvers. One other issue was that some pilots, who were

IEW Newsletter 7 His most recent project was the creation and manage-ment of the C-53 D-Day Doll Commemoration Plaque, which accompanied the 80th anniversary of the plane’s construction. He continues to remind members and guests of the board’s impor-tance in recognizing the contri-bution of all who served in the U.S. military. David was pleasantly surprised and hum-bled when he received an IEW Citation for his work on creating and managing the com-memoration plaque.  David Malmad first started flying in 1965 and was an active general aviation pilot for over 40 years. He holds a Private /Instrument li-cense, high performance, tail-dragger and aerobatic endorsement. He became acquainted with the CAF after attending an annual airshow at Har-lingen, Texas in 1975. He did not join till years later. During a return trip in a friend’s plane from Oshkosh in the late 1990s, it was decided a stop at CAF headquarters in Midland/Odessa, Texas would occur. During the visit David joined the CAF and subsequently be-came acquainted with the Inland Empire Wing (IEW). In past years as a member of the IEW, David was the unit librarian. Book and magazine donations needed to be organized and made available to unit members. He created, documented and managed the facility, ena-bling members to have a reference room and ability to check books out as needed. Sub-sequent changes to the facility led to the re-placement of the library with other unit functions. In addition to serving in the IEW, David joined the CAF Marshalling Detach-ment and is currently the west coast lead. With more time available after retirement as a systems consultant, David went through training as a loadmaster and is currently qualified and active with the IEW C53 as well as the CAF B-17 and B-25 located at the Arizona Airbase in Mesa, Arizona. David volunteers when he can. Whether ap-pearing during cleanup meetings, helping out during regular member meetings and events or taking on projects. He does not wait to be asked when he sees opportunities to contribute. Col David Malmad earns IEW 2024 Award IEW Newsletter April 2025 CONSOLIDATED P-30 Continued from page 6 used to flying planes with fixed landing gear, would forget to lower the gear for landing, making a most expensive belly-landing! Not only was that humiliating, but it meant a most expensive repair, or possi-ble write-off of the plane! The plane was in production from late 1933 to Aug. 1936 and served with the US Army Air Corps from 1934 to 1942. However, It was basically obsolete by 1939, with the single seat Sever sky P-35 and Curtiss P-36 replacing it. Still, it was a good aircraft and the P-30/PB-2As did serve as trainers up until June 1942. A total of 60 were built, with just five being the attack model. Sadly, none exist today of this rather unique fighter. Chris

IEW Newsletter 8 Colonels Let’s Support Each Other in our Joys and Sorrows IEW Member’s ‘This and That’ is for Colonels up-dates. Please send to editor as ‘life happens’! April 2025 GUESTS INPUT Continued from page 15 IEW Announcement During the month of April, the Lyon Air Mu-seum will be commemorating the 50th An-niversary of the Fall of Saigon. As part of that they are planning to host a Saturday morning panel discussion, about an hour in duration, on the chaotic fall of the SVN capitol and ensuing Operation Fre-quent Wind. They are hoping to find one or more veter-ans of that operation, preferably but not limited to airmen, who would be open to taking part in the discussion. Along with American representation they are also plan-ning on having one or more members of the SVN armed forces who took part in the evacuation on the panel as well. Are you interested and fit the above criteria and would you be willing to be a part of the panel? In addition to the panel discussion, they will also have a History on the Flight Line event on April 26 that will feature air-craft of the Vietnam War such as their T-6, O-1, A-26, C-47, as well as also hoping to bring in a T-28, O-2, OV-10, UH-1, and others. Contact David Malmad dmalmad613@ gmail.com.  NEXT Hangar Day and Staff Meeting Will be April 5th, 2025 Update on Col Babe Ruth Babe has had considerable health chal-lenges and is doing physical therapy to get his leg to work again. He said he spent Christmas, New Years and his birthday in a rehab center. He sat on the edge of his bed, got up to walk and fell instead breaking his knee cap in two places. The good news is he has lost 50 pounds in just a few months. The bad news is he can only take a few steps at a time. He wanted to know how his friend Ed was doing. They worked on projects together  New Member Mentoring Program I’d like to start with a new men-toring program for new mem-bers that I need volunteers for. The program would consist of a few volunteers that would guide and mentor our new members as they learn the ropes and get started with IEW. I will start this program with Steve Dykhouse as my assistant in the mentor program. I’d like the mentors to not only guide the new members but be the voice of the new member as some-times new folks tend to be a little shy at first. We will find out what they are interested in doing and help guide them to complete the role that they would like to do. Also, to train them the way of doing things safely and produc-tively. Volunteers will be trained in what to do during mentoring . To participate in the new member mentoring program call Dennis. 626.367-4034 dennisrking39@yahoo.com Dennis King Membership

IEW Newsletter 9 April 2025 Colonels: Is ONE of your talents the ability to write feature stories? This editor would like to see an article from a different Colonel each month on different topics of interest to the writer and readership. If interested contact Shirley 951.515.5896 starsprt@earthlink.net WW-II Memorabilia Please help me add a display to our museum that will be an-other blast from the past! Af-ter attending our CAF Confer-ence 2025 in Dallas, TX, I was recharged with completing it. The Footlocker Pro-ject begun years and years ago by Linda Zust (a dynamic IEW organizer). We have a very nice WWII footlocker, but it is empty. I want to start collecting small WWII Memorabilia that a GI would keep in the trunk at the end of his/her bed. Give me a call with any questions or items you would like to donate. 951.533-5608 lilindgren@hotmail.com Linda Lindgren Education Officer March ARB 2025 Airshow Whether you're an aviation enthusiast, history buff, or just looking for a fun day out, an airshow offers something for every-one. Mark your calendars and join us for an un-forgettable experiences the weekend of April 12 and 13. Right here in our back yard at March Air Reserve Base. For successful airshow demonstration, it takes many colonels working together. Call or email Craig and let him know what you can do to help with the success of IEW participation. 618.558.7211 craig.omara747@gmail.com Have you seen the latest promotional video about the Commemorative Air Force (copy this url and paste to your computer. It comes up in Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHOSWtEMN3T/?igsh=MTBlZjE4YzMxOA%3D%3D&fbclid= IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0WEdbVPBrz8Pk-gSWbasYNDu0fYeZ9y1AYwsN7OtpBvFO7qh_CCpmjzv-o_aem_wMjITSrPbPfCk7jWx1wdKw Identification of Pictures on page 6 Mary Shultz, Gary Stark, Erick Down-ing, Mike Roth-meyer, Craig & Susan O’Mara, Linda & Mike Lindgren, Steve Rose, James Stone, Brandy Stone. Cadet, James Stone is in pilot heaven behind all the controls. Bottom center: Mary and Brandy Bottom right: Mike & Linda Lindgren

IEW Newsletter 10 Inland Empire Wing Officers and Crew Appointed Positions The Staff of the Inland Empire Wing are here to serve you. Do not hesitate to give any Staff Member a call. Staff Executive Officer Assistant Howie Ramshorn 951.206.1075 Air Show Coordinator Don Colley 512.753.9444 Bartender Brandy Stone 951.892.2349 Chief Pilot Steve Rose 714.403.9052 Hangar Boss Mike Lindgren 909.731.6875 Mess Officer O’Mara 618.558.7211 Fernandez 714.222.3328 Motor Pool Dave Mihelich 951.313.6834 Motor Pool Assistant Vincent Kerr 951.403.7810 Museum Director-Curator Chris Clarke 909.341.3090 Newsletter Editor Shirley Kerr 951.515.5896 Project Officers Greg Fernandez 714.222.3328 Dennis King 626.367-4034 PX-Lite Greg Fernandez 714.222.3328 Kathy Fernandez 951.235.4541 Public Information Officer Brandy Stone 951.892.2349 April 2025 Wing Leader (Commanding Officer) Craig O’Mara 618.558.7211 Executive Officer Greg Fernandez 714.222.3328 Dave Mihelich 951.313.6834 Adjutant Dennis King 626.367.4034 Aircraft Maintenance Officer Ben Clerx 949.632.3285 Business Development Gary Stark 951.443.1000 Education Officer Linda Lindgren 951.533-5608 Finance Officer Chris Clarke 909.341.3090 Operations Officer Andy Conley 909.261.5011 Safety Officer Mike Lindgren 909.731.6875 Safety Officer Assistant Jonathan Aronoff 305.458.3294 Social Officer Linda Lindgren 951.533.5608 Wing Photographer Vacant Wing Webmaster Gary Stark 951.213.8267 Brandy Stone 951.892.2349

IEW Newsletter 11 April Dinner Meeting Suggestions or to volunteer to submit an article for the Newsletter contact Shirley Kerr starsprt@earthlink.net WINGS is the official publication of the Inland Empire Wing, a unit of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF). The CAF is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. No part of this periodical June be reproduced without the written consent of the IEW publisher of Wings. WINGS is not responsible for content accuracy of any article. Address correspondence to WINGS, c/o Shirley Kerr, at IEW, Riverside Municipal Airport Han-gar S, 6936 Flight Road, Riverside, CA 92504. © 2019 Inland Empire Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. Menu: Surprise! 320 Hangar Day April 5th Beginning at 8 am Join other colonels and let’s work to-gether to clean up the hangar and ac-complish a few tasks on the Hangar Boss’ list. Or maybe there is something you see around the hangar that you would like to do. Be sure to let Mike Lindgren know what it is.  April 2025 Wed., April 9th at 5: 3 0 S ocial + Net workin g + Di n n e r + M e e ti ng + Spe ak e r = O NL Y $ 2 0. Vietnam Facts The Vietnam War was a major conflict in Southeast Asia, a proxy war of the Cold War, where North Vietnam, supported by the Soviet Union and China, fought against South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations, ulti-mately ending in a North Vietnamese victory and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. Most of the soldiers were volunteers. It was the first televised war. The Vietnam war helped to end the draft. There weren't sufficient supplies.  Mary Schulz, one of our fairly new members, is the speaker. She will be sharing on “Mental health”. Dinner Meetings are great times to visit with other colonels. Come and Join Us!

IEW Newsletter 12 Commemorative Air Force Inland Empire Wing 6936 Flight Road, Hangar S Riverside, Ca 92504 2025 IEW Headquarters Conference we are pleased to offer downloadable presentations from many of the sessions. (https://commemorativeairforce.org/pages/cafconference2025) Feel free to explore and revisit the valuable knowledge shared by our speakers. Top Award Goes to the Inland Empire Wing Nine colonels and a cadet from IEW at-tended the annual event. And, they were excited to bring home the Distinguished Unit Award. Save the date for 2026: We’re already looking forward to next year’s event, and we hope you’ll join us again! Mark your cal-endars for Feb. 26-28, 2026. It will be another unforgettable experi-ence celebrating aviation history, inno-vation, and camaraderie. ALL colonels and friends of the IEW are invited to at-tend this exciting annual event.  Thank You For Attending: On behalf of the entire team at the Commemorative Air Force, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks for joining us at this year’s event! Your participation, enthusiasm, and pas-sion for aviation history made this gather-ing truly special. We hope you enjoyed the engaging sessions, insightful discussions, and the op-portunity to connect with fellow aviation enthusiasts. As a token of our appreciation,