I just found out the pilot is a man I had met early on in my volunteer work on the airplane. His name is Don Hinz and headed up the Red Tail project. He was instrumental in soliciting funds for the project as well as several programs for Black Americans and actually gave several of the original Tuskeegee pilots a ride in this very plane. I also found out that I unknowingly witnessed the airplanes final turn before it crashed. I looked at the clock in my truck as I was driving down the road and it was 2:10, the exact time the news reports say the airplane crashed. The four plane formation was making a wide turn and I remember wondering why they headed so far North this time as well as why one of the P51s was breaking formation. I assumed he was headed home. The engine sounded
perfectly normal at that time and I had no hint of the pending disaster nor did I see the plane go down which was only 1 mile away. Sad day for sure for Don, his family and the entire CAF family.
