If you love planes and flying stories, be sure to read the "bomber in the lake" section...
Historic WWII plane for sale
“Skunkie,” the B-25C Mitchell bomber pulled out of Lake Greenwood in 1983 and stored in Columbia since 1992, is on the block. But critics say the plane should stay in South Carolina.
The Celebrate Freedom Foundation, which was given the plane by the city of Columbia in 2007, is looking to sell the bomber to a museum or other group that can protect and display it, preferably a museum in the Southeast, said Larry Russell, the foundation’s new executive director.
“It’s a beautiful aircraft,” said Russell, standing next to the plane on a sweltering tarmac outside the historic but crumbling Curtiss-Wright Hangar at Jim Hamilton-L.B. Owens Airport in downtown Columbia.
“But it’s a hunk of junk out here in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “Our mission is to educate children, and this isn’t it.”
Museums in Georgia, North Carolina and other states have shown an interest, but Russell said no one has made a firm offer.
The bomber in the lake
Dan Rossman was a 20-year-old pilot from Philadelphia on June 6, 1944.
On the same day American and Allied troops were storming the Normandy beaches in what would be forever known as D-Day, he was cruising the skies around the Upstate training in a B-25C Mitchell bomber tagged GF2 — for Greenville, Fox squadron, Plane 2.
Rossman, Walter “Blackie” Wallace, and John Jackson, who had just returned from combat missions in North Africa and Italy, were taking turns flying the plane.
After Rossman’s turn, Jackson said, “You’ve got this knocked,” and took over, offering to show “how we fly in real combat,” Rossman said.
“It was about 4:30 in the afternoon,” Rossman recalled from his home in Roswell, Ga. “We were flying down Lake Greenwood very low. I looked out the window, and there was a fisherman standing in a boat. We were eye to eye.”
Rossman said both props of the plane touched the water and the plane went into the lake.
“When I came to, I was drinking Lake Greenwood,” Rossman said.
No one was killed. “But I took a whole bunch of stitches in my chin. Blackie hit the back of my seat, and his face was split open.”
Jackson, a flight engineer and a fifth person in the plane were not injured.
Rossman was fined $75 and reprimanded, but later flew in combat in the South Pacific.
For history’s sake, he says call the B-25 by its real name – GF2.
“If you call it ‘Skunkie,’ this conversation ends right now,” Rossman said. “That’s no name for an airplane, and I never saw it on that plane.”
More:
Historic WWII plane for sale - SC Business Report - Top Story - TheState.com
