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NORMANDY, France — Hollowed soil, possessed by a war machine denying liberty and freedom; hedgerows lined with hostile weaponry; dreary skies lit by gunfire launched from the ground; two Army Air Corp pilots flying into the face of danger.
How different today is from that, though the plane is still the same. William “Bill” Prindible and Julian “Bud” Rice once again soared over the fields of Normandy marking the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
“It’s a fantastic moment,” Rice said. “It is a bit nicer now though. I have a little less to worry about.”
Seventy years ago, Prindible and Rice were piloting C-47 Skytrains with the 37th Troop Carrier Squadron, the legacy unit of Ramstein’s 37th Airlift Squadron, into Axis-defended airspace to drop paratroopers near Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France.
“The C-47 is a very lovable aircraft,” Rice said. “There are quite a few unique traits about it. The wings tend to flap around a bit like a bird, and it likes to bounce around a little while flying, but I would never trade the feeling of piloting it.”
Unlike today, they had to fly their aircraft nearly wingtip to wingtip, Rice said. The skies were filled with hundreds of C-47 Skytrains to complete a mission that would now be handled in an entirely different manner.
“We’ve been having an amazing experience,” Prindible said. “It’s been quite some time since I have been back here, but I have been nothing but pleased.”
Due in part to the effort put forth by 37th AS Airmen, flying over Normandy inside a C-47 that was part of the same adventure Prindible and Rice once took became a
reality.
