EVERETT — It lasted only about 20 minutes, but for Steve Grimsley, it was the trip of a lifetime.
A serious World War II buff, Grimsley won a ride on a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber on Monday.
“It’s like winning the lottery for me. Better, actually,” he said before climbing aboard the Sentimental Journey, a restored bomber that is touring the West Coast this summer.
Grimsley, who lives in Marysville, won the ride by entering a contest at the Flying Heritage Collection, Paul Allen’s museum of World War II-era aircraft housed in a hangar at Paine Field.
The B-17 will be stationed at the museum for the public to see through Friday morning. The Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, an all-volunteer group based in Mesa, Ariz., maintains the bomber and other warbirds from World War II and Vietnam.
Of 12,731 Boeing-
designed B-17s originally built, only about 50 remain and only about eight are capable of flying, said Harry Border of the Commemorative Air Force.
On a visit to the Flying Heritage Collection about three weeks ago, Grimsley filled out a form to enter the contest and dropped it in the box.
A couple of weeks later, he got the call that he’d won.
“He just couldn’t believe it,” said his wife, Kelly.
At the museum, Grimsley, 43, met Art Unruh, 86, who flew on 50 combat missions over Europe on a B-17 during the war. Unruh, of
Arlington, works as a docent at the museum.
Grimsley bought Unruh’s book, “The Shadow Casters,” an account of his experiences as a gunner on the plane during the war, and devoured its contents.
“I’m his biggest fan,” Grimsley said. “I just have so much respect for him and so much respect for that generation. I truly believe they are the greatest generation that ever lived, because of the hardships they endured and the work they did for our freedom.”
In July 1944, Unruh was on his last mission before finishing his combat duty for the war when the bomber was attacked by a swarm of Nazi fighters. The plane was hit more than 600 times by bullets and shell fire. Holes were blown in the rear of the bomber, fires broke out and the tail gunner was seriously injured.
Unruh was awarded a Silver Star medal for gallantry for pulling the tail gunner to a safer spot on the plane. The pilot managed to lose the fighters in the clouds and limp home during a two-hour journey from Austria to its base in Foggia, Italy.
Several other bombers on the same mission never made it back.
Unruh himself was injured on an earlier mission when he was hit by flak, or shrapnel, from a Nazi shell fired from the ground. He still has some of the pieces he found in the plane. His heavy flak jacket saved his life, he said.
“I thank God I’m still on this Earth,” Unruh said. For his friends who didn’t make it home, “my flag goes up every day,” he said.
Unruh and several others accompanied Grimsley on Monday’s flight, which circled Everett a couple of times and returned.
Grimsley gushed over the experience.
“This is just so great,” he said. “The smells, the vibration, the sensation of everything.”
Grimsley and Unruh rode in the middle section of the restored plane, and at one point posed for a photo next to a machine gun in the same location as the one manned for 44 missions by Unruh.
Monday’s ride was Unruh’s fourth on a restored B-17 in recent years. His original plane was shot down later in the war.
For Grimsley, it was an experience he’ll never forget.
“All those pro athletes say ‘I’m going to Disneyland,’ ” he said. “They should say, ‘I’m going for a ride on a
B-17.’ ”
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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