(solemn music) (flame roaring) - In some senses, the volunteers are the stories behind the aircraft.

They see themselves on what they did, in what they can transfer on now to the repair, the restoration, the preservation of the aircraft, and to the preservation of their stories.

(soft music) In a way, it goes back.

I'm an Air Force veteran.

What we have together in a common purpose, something we do, something we love, I think something we're doing good for people.

Restoring the aircraft allows people to see a piece of history, so that is the common purpose.

But also, the camaraderie is really nice.

- Yeah, you hear propeller engines.

- [Volunteer] Yeah.

(laughing) Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [Bob] We have crews that do everything from machining parts, to welding pieces together, to working on the propellers, the engines, there's different crews, and then the aircraft itself.

(volunteers chatting) - The things that make this place so special are the people.

The volunteers.

Do I see myself in that work?

Well, yes.

I feel very close to a lot of people.

I just, you want to help.

But my big problem now is I turned 90 years old, and they think I'm getting old.

I'm not getting old, I'm getting younger every damn day.

And if there's help, I wanna help.

But somebody'll look over and say, "He's too old, he might get hurt."

That pisses me off.

(light music) I'm not that old and I won't get hurt, and I wanna be a part of it.

Being a part of the whole deal is, to me, that's important.

I can say I helped on this, I helped on that, I helped on something else, but I was a part of it.

- I had been retired for about two years, and I decided, you know, when you first retire, say, "Wow, I got nothing to do," you know?

And then after a while I said, "Well, shoot, I got nothing to do."

And I was looking for something, and I don't play golf.

And I said, "You know, I'm gonna see if the museum needs anybody there."

So I fill out the online application and everything, and I got called in, and the guy said, "Oh, yeah, I can use you, you know, with your background and all."

When I would come out to restoration, 'cause I didn't even know, really, what they did here.

(sander whirring) When I went on the P-51, boy, that was a great project because it was a, you know, such an iconic airplane.

I always loved the P-51, and here I got to work on one, and we took it a long way.

(solemn music) My father's, I've got a lifelong love of aviation from him.

He was drafted to fight in World War II.

He was a B-24 flight engineer.

On his eighth mission out of England in the 8th Air Force, he was shot down.

And he spent, oh, about the last 10 months of the war as a prisoner of war.

My mother at the time was pregnant with me, and so he didn't see me 'til I was, oh, about 10 months old.

After the war, he worked for a few different aviation companies before settling at Kaman aircraft in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

We would talk a lot about aircraft, and go to the air shows, and just watch the airplanes and all.

(soft music) I went to Vietnam in August of 1965.

(helicopter whirring) I flew one month as a gunner, helicopter gunner.

The rest of the time, of course, I was a technician.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- [Rick] I decided I would volunteer to be a crew chief on the next aircraft.

I said it had to be a Marine Corps airplane, because we had nothing but Marines on here.

And I chose the Kaman HOK.

That aircraft had never left Kaman.

It was a test aircraft.

My father was one of the flight test inspectors, so he worked on that aircraft.

- [Bob] I started nine years ago as a volunteer.

We're saving pieces of history that people are not aware of, need to be aware of and see.

So just from an interest standpoint, also from a history standpoint, that we realize the efforts that were done in the past.

(light music) The restoration volunteers, probably actively, there's 55 or 60, and during a regular week, I'll have anywhere from 35 to 40 on a Tuesday, a little smaller on a Thursday, and there's a crew that works on Saturday.

Yeah, our volunteers are a mix of veterans, people from the industry, people from not.

A lot of our people just love the technology, as well as what goes into the actual aircraft, and you put it all together and it comes up with an end product that shows well in the museum.

- They do love what they're doing.

The accomplishment to take a piece, take an engine that is corroded, and turn around and make it look like brand new again.

Yeah, takes a lot of love.

Every bolt, nut, screw, everything is turned, or everything's cleaned up, everything's perfect.

And when they get done, they're pretty damn proud of that.

We got married before I went into the service.

My wife was 16 years old and I was 19 when we first got married.

My wife's name was Shirley.

When I first came out of the service, we lived in Hartford, and then we, later, with three children, we moved outta Hartford into Enfield.

She was a fantastic woman to put up with me.

I should've spent more time with her and less with the airplanes, but these are days I regret now.

She passed away, and I had a son who passed away two years before her.

He was very close to his mother, she was very close to him.

They did a lot of stuff together, and it kind of drug her down.

She just couldn't make it.

And I've been alone since, but I'm doing okay.

Well, I'm surviving because I do have these volunteers here, 'cause after my wife passed away, there was a short period of time that it really hurt.

So, yeah.

(solemn music) - You know, looking back on it, if I hadn't done this, I don't know what I would be doing that would be so fulfilling.

as this has been.

It's changed me in the respect that I really thought retirement was gonna be a bit different and a lot more boring, but it isn't boring at all.

(plane engine roaring)