War pilot will soar again

When Charlie Taylor was called up for service in World War II, he never dreamed he would make it as a pilot.

Neither did some of his flight instructors.

But darn if he didn't prove them wrong.

From July to November 1944, Taylor flew 36 bombing missions in a B-24 Liberator.

Along the way he fell in love with the bulky, under-appreciated four-engine aircraft that took his crewmen overseas and brought them back home without so much as a scratch.

That's why Taylor, now 88, is so thrilled that today, somewhere in the skies between Burlington and Fayetteville, he will sit in the cockpit of a restored B-24. It will be his first time at the controls in 64 years.

How did he arrange it?

Several years ago, Taylor's kids and grandkids chipped in to buy him a sponsorship of the B-24 through something called the Collings Foundation, which maintains old airplanes to keep the history alive as well.

Like so many WWII vets, Taylor recalls his service days with crystal clarity.

Having grown up in Middlesex, a small town in Nash County, he was about as cosmopolitan as a mud puddle.

"I'd been about as far away from home as the outhouse," he said the other day over coffee at Hardee's.

And while Taylor is a humble storyteller, he insists that one instructor in particular told him every day that he was too dumb to be a pilot.

"He said, 'You're just never going to be able to do it, are you?' " Taylor said.

Yet Taylor soldiered on.

And when he got his wings, Taylor, thanks to a series of tosses of a 50-cent coin, even won the privilege of flying a B-24 all the way from the States to Italy.

Together, Taylor's crew members flew missions over Poland and Romania, over Vienna and Munich.

From their B-24, they saw planes blow up; they saw planes fall from the sky. On one fateful mission, all four of their own engines died, forcing them to glide for 10 minutes over the Alps before they regained power.

Their plane took massive enemy fire, leaving it riddled with holes. One day, Taylor found a hunk of flak shrapnel right behind his seat in the cockpit.

He has it still today.

Taylor did not end up pursuing a life of flight like a lot of WWII pilots. Instead, he came back to North Carolina where he and his brother opened the Four Seasons nursery, first at Cameron Village, then in North Raleigh.

He met his wife during flight school, and they had three children before she died too young. He later met a lovely widow with three girls of her own. They've been married 38 years.

Taylor said that while some vets of his era were too reticent to discuss their service, well, he was just too busy.

It wasn't until after he retired that he looked up his old mates, most of whom are now dead. Of the two surviving, one is in a nursing home and suffers dementia.

But Taylor's bombardier still has the 50-cent piece that won him the privilege of flying all the way to Italy.

It served the crew well in the war. Of course, Taylor has always considered himself a lucky man.

Three years ago, Taylor had a chance to ride as a passenger in the B-24. This time, though, he will sit at the controls and fly again.

It's a dream Taylor never imagined would come true. Then or now.