u/wolf10851

Bonnie Harris was a nurse in Spokane, Washington. Bill Dunham was a small town kid from the Pacific Northwest flying P-47 Thunderbolts over some of the most hostile jungle terrain on earth.

While Bonnie waited at home, Bill was racking up an impressive combat record over New Guinea and the Philippines with the 348th Fighter Group — eventually becoming the second highest scoring P-47 ace in the entire Pacific Theater with 16 aerial victories. He was so devoted to Bonnie that he named all three of his P-47s after her. When the 348th finally transitioned to Mustangs near the end of the war, he named his P-51K "Mrs. Bonnie" — because by then Miss Bonnie Harris had become Mrs. Bonnie Dunham. They married on leave in January before the war ended.

Bill finished the war decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters, and the Air Medal with six oak leaf clusters. He retired as a Brigadier General in 1970 after also serving in Vietnam. He died in 1990 and is buried at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Bellevue, Washington.

The aircraft you see here isn't actually one of Bill's three personal Bonnies — those were lost to the war. This is serial 42-27609, a P-47D-23 Razorback that crashed at Dobodura airstrip in New Guinea on September 18, 1944 and sat in the jungle for decades before being recovered and painstakingly restored over eight years by AirCorps Aviation in Bemidji, Minnesota. It made its first post-restoration flight on May 16, 2023 — and carries Dunham's markings as a tribute to both the man and the woman who inspired the name.

It is the only flying Republic-built razorback P-47D in the world.

I photographed her just months after that first flight at the California Capital Airshow in Sacramento, September 2023.

Full gallery: https://wolf10851.com/gallery.html?search=Bonnie

On February 18, 1944, Second Lieutenant Edward W. Getter took off on a routine VFR flight near Summit, Alaska. He never made it back. His P-51A Mustang, serial 43-6006, went down in heavy snow with only 43 hours on the airframe. Lt. Getter was killed. The aircraft remained on that mountain, exposed to the Alaskan weather for over 30 years. Hunters who stumbled across the wreck left their mark — literally scribbling their names on the engine valve covers.

In the fall of 1977, Waldon "Moon" Spillars and two friends climbed that mountain and brought her home.

With almost no P-51A parts available anywhere, Spillars spent years piecing her back together using components from P-51Ds. On July 3, 1985 — 41 years after she went down — Polar Bear flew again.

She went on to race at the Reno Air Races — powered by her original Allison V-12, not the Merlin that transformed the later Mustangs into legends. While everyone else on the flightline was running Merlins, Polar Bear showed up with the engine most people considered the lesser powerplant and still took home a Bronze Victory in the Silver class. Mustang purists took notice.

She flew the airshow circuit up and down the West Coast for years, charming everyone who heard that distinctive Allison sound coming down the flightline instead of the Merlin growl they expected.

I photographed her at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California in 2007. She was everything the name promised — dark, menacing, and carrying a story most people had never heard.

She has since been sold, fully restored to P-51A specs, and repainted. The Polar Bear name and nose art are gone. She flies today as "Shanty Irish."

Three fighters. Three eras. One pass.

"Wee Willy II" — a P-51 Mustang, the dominant air superiority fighter of WWII. When it arrived in the European theater the Luftwaffe knew the war was over. Some would argue the Corsair deserves the overall WWII crown — the comments should be interesting. 😄

The F-86 Sabre — America's answer to the MiG-15 over Korea. The jet that proved America could transition from propellers to jets without missing a beat.

The F-22 Raptor — so dominant that no adversary nation has even attempted to build a direct competitor. Still the most advanced air superiority fighter ever built 20 years after its first flight.

Together they flew a heritage flight at the California Capital Airshow in 2009 — two years after the Air Force's 60th birthday.

Full gallery: https://wolf10851.com/gallery.html?search=Heritage%20Flight

On July 15, 1942, Lieutenant Harry Smith belly-landed this P-38 Lightning on a Greenland ice cap during a ferry flight to England. All crew were rescued. The planes were left behind.

Nobody expected to see them again.

Fifty years later, buried under 268 feet of solid ice, Glacier Girl was found. Ten years of meticulous restoration followed. On October 26, 2002 — sixty years after her forced landing — she flew again.

I photographed her at a California airshow. Construction number 5757 on the nose. Four .50 caliber machine guns and a 20mm cannon staring straight at you.

She's still flying today.

Full gallery: https://wolf10851.com/gallery.html?search=Glacier%20Girl