Nana Swan (second from left) being awarded MBE by the late Queen of England!This is a painting of who Grandma Swan Saved as Fire Chief of London in WWII. Our UPS man in Oconomowoc gifted it to me and it hung in our office for a decade.It was 1982 pre-cell phone era for the Osh Kosh Fly-In. 100,000+ Pilots. “Meet me there at 7 Friday night” were my instructions from Dad. I get there and realize there is no way I will find him. But a guy behind a counter says – “Hey Kid – I just met a guy who looks just like you – he’s over there.” Providence. What a weekend we had. We camped out. I scored a date with a townie whose parents got married on the same day mine did: July 13, 1957. Dad picked out his plane to buy. I fell in love with the serenity of Ultra Lights. This picture was the only one on the wall at his death bed- a first ever digital photo. Dad was 58 – younger than I am now – when we posed for it there in an Osh-Kosh tent. Life goes by pretty fast. Ferris Bueller was right.A Consolidated B-24 Liberator from Maxwell Field, Alabama, four engine pilot school, glistens in the sun as it makes a turn at high altitude in the clouds. The B-24 Liberator Bomberwas made at Ford’s Willow Run. From 1939 to 1945, my dad (Warren Swan) flew this uncompressed plane for the RAF. Naturally, Ford hired him after he survived WWII because “Freedom isn’t free.” Dad, second from left on far right picture, returned as a war hero, went to night school, met mom and lived the American Automotive Dream.
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