Museum at Sonoma County airport to honor WWII, Korea vets

It’s a rare day when a young person has a chance to speak leisurely with a World War II combat veteran.

And far rarer when someone eager to meet and ask questions of World War II vets has access to several dozens of them.

On Saturday, more than 40 veterans, most of them in their 90s and a few older than 100, will take part in a special Memorial Day Weekend open house at the Pacific Coast Air Museum.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the museum at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, visitors will be able to talk with veterans who served in World War II, Korea or in both wars. Also during the salute to the region’s oldest veterans, vintage aircraft and jeeps will be on display, and food will be available.

Weather permitting, the four-plane Bay Bombers Squadron Formation Team will perform the “Missing Man” formation. The Sonoma County Calendar Girls will be on hand for photo ops.

One of the World War II vets who’ll speak and be honored by PCAM is 101-year-old Al Maggini of Santa Rosa. The longtime Sonoma County civic leader drives a Porsche these days and in 1944 he flew the first of 35 bombing missions over Germany as a navigator aboard B-17 Flying Fortresses.

His friend, Bob Trombetta, also of Santa Rosa, plans to be at the museum event. Trombetta, 95, flew the P-47 Thunderbolt and survived 91 combat missions.

The roster of World War II vets expected to take part Saturday also includes 100-year-old Sebastopol native Fred Bollinger, who served in the Army in World War II as a radio operator, and Darrel Shumard, who’s 95 and also lives in Sebastopol. Shumard will speak with anyone who’s interested about the mid-air collision on Valentine’s Day of 1945 that crashed his P-47 and caused him to spend the remainder of the war in a German prisoner-of-war camp.