It has been a static centerpiece. So, one of my first goals for the museum was to figure out how we could bring some new life back into the museum, to get these antique, historic airplanes into the air, where they belong. Along came the 75th anniversary of the dday invasion. What a unique opportunity to join in a major part of history that these airplanes were built for and to partake in the 75th anniversary of the dday invasion. Our museum is known as the museum of mountain flying. It is dedicated to the Pioneering Spirit of a gentleman named bob johnson, who helped develop aerial firefighting programs here. I knew, to start a project like this, we have had this historic c47 airplane here for 18 years, and it has become kind of a gathering for the retired smoke jumpers. To be able to pull off an event that would take us around the world and back, we needed more Community Support than that. We formed what is known as the miss montana to normandy campaign. The name, the miss montana, comes from a world war ii plane that was flown by my grandfather in world war ii. He flew 286 combat hours. He was a small town boy. 18yearold, 19yearold from montana, survived the war effort, lost two thirds of his squadron, and came back to a cattle ranch in montana. We had this amazing name that totally fit what we were doing it, shows that we are interested in honoring World War Ii History , so we are going to make new history with it. We spruced up the nose art a little bit. We are happy to share that history with the rest of the state and everybody around the world who would like to listen. This airplane, to get it airborne after 18 years, luckily, we were able to keep it in the hangar here. Corrosion issues were not a problem, or whether flight or weather flight controls. We knew when we decided to take this project on that we would have to set our sights at half 1 million to do the restoration we want to do to bring the airplane up to modern standards, with the avionics and most importantly, the engines, to be able to safely take the airplane and its crew across the Atlantic Ocean not once, but twice. Then, the maintenance required with these old airplanes, the oil and spark plugs, there is no end to what is required to make a journey like this and bring it home safely. It almost, to me, still hasnt in that this is still a remarkable dream, with the Community Support and volunteers turning out to make this happen. I hope it is going to be flying in another 75, so my great grandchildren can enjoy it and experience that part of history that is disappearing every day. Some of the dday veterans and survivors are disappearing every day. This is probably the last big event where anyone who was actually alive to storm the beaches of normandy or jumped out of one of these is going to be able to partake in the celebration. We are honored to be able to show our respect to those guys while they are still here with us. You can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at cspan. Org citiestour. This is American History tv, only on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend, tonight at 10 00 eastern, the 1957 u. S. Commissioner of education film education 57, looking at issues surrounding the time, including teacher pay and Student Dropout rates. , part two6 00 eastern of the africanamerican heritage trail tore through alabama. 7 00 eastern, a discussion on emancipation and washington, d. C. The experiences of newly freed africanamericans, especially women, in the d. C. Era area. Story,ng the american watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. [chanting] with the protests across the country, what our live, unfiltered coverage of the government response and briefings from the white house, congress, governors, and mayors from across the nation, updating the situation. Plus, efforts addressing the coronavirus pandemic and campaign 2020. Join in the conversation every day on our live callin Program Washington journal. If you missed our live coverage, what anytime on demand at cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Announcer 1 this is american. Istory tv on cspan3 we feature 48 hours of programming on our nations past. Up next on lectures in history, professor Natalia Mehlman Petrzela talks about the 1980s fitness holger and industry in the u. S. Culture and industry in the u. S. Career opportunities for people that otherwise were physical education teachers. This class was taught online. The new School Provided the video. Hi and welcome to fit nation. We are talking about 1980s workout culture. This is i believe our third week together virtually. I hope you all are doing well. I will share my screen with you and we can get right started. So as always what we are looking is abouts class today the rise of the american obsession wi