AUBURN — Former New Gloucester resident Tom Driscoll picks up the leather flying jacket that his father, Lt. John Driscoll Sr., wore when he piloted B-17s in the 1940s.

The jacket is a family treasure and symbol of the stories that John finally began telling about the war near the end of his life in 1996.

Tom, who has a son who also flies for the Army, will bring the jacket with him when he attends the Wings of Freedom Tour in Auburn this week, which takes place at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport Monday through Wednesday.

John was raised in Auburn, was 19 when he became an Army pilot and was only 21 when he piloted a B-17 named Rara Avis and its crew on 32 bombing missions over Germany and Holland from May 4, 1944, to Aug. 8, 1944.

Son Tom, who now lives in Winthrop, plans to attend the Wings of Freedom Tour in part because the tour will feature a World War II vintage B-17 Flying Fortress, as well as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator and a North American P-51 Mustang.

Tom flies Black Hawks for the Maine Army National Guard and served two tours in Iraq ferrying the wounded.

His son, Capt. John Thomas Driscoll II, grew up in New Gloucester and graduated from high school there. Currently on Army active duty, he also pilots Black Hawks, served two tours in Iraq in recent years and teaches at a military academy in Virginia.

For Tom, the Wings of Freedom tour will not only connect the memories he has of his father’s war experience with an actual working model of the plane his father piloted, but another memory: Before his father passed away in 1996, family members paid for John Sr. and his wife, Ruth, to celebrate their 50th anniversary by taking a flight in a B-17 during a Wings of Freedom tour at the time.

“I realize how much influence my father’s military service had on me and upon my son,” Tom Driscoll said in a recent interview. “No matter what I did, I just did it flying in Iraq for two missions. That is nothing compared to his 32 missions. I feel like a little acorn under the mighty oaks.”

The current Wings of Freedom tour, which was created by the nonprofit, educational Collings Foundation, is visiting 110 cities and is meant to honor WWII veterans. In Auburn, the display will be held at the main ramp of the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport at 80 Airport Drive.

It will arrive at the airport at 2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 19, and will be on display until the aircraft departs on Wednesday at noon. Hours of the ground tours and display are 2 to 5 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday. Cost is $12 for adults, children under 6 are $6. WWII veterans can tour through the aircraft at no cost. Discounted rates for school groups.

Flight experiences are normally scheduled before and after the ground tour times. A 30-minute flight aboard either the B-17 or B-24 is $425 a person. “Stick time” opportunity in the P-51 Mustang is $2,200 for 30 minutes, $3,200 for a full hour. For reservations, call 1-800-568-8924.

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