Four Years in the Making: Day’s Pay Squadron Takes Flight

Wings Over Walla Walla, September 11-12, 2026

For four years, members of the Commemorative Air Force Day’s Pay Squadron worked toward a dream: to turn their 1943 Fairchild PT-23 into more than a living piece of history. They wanted it to become an aircraft that could once again carry passengers into the sky, tell the story of the men and women of the World War II generation, and inspire another generation to fall in love with aviation.

On September 11, 2026, that dream finally became reality.

It was fitting that such an important chapter for Day’s Pay began on a day already filled with reflection. September 11 marked the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and our nation. The significance of the date was not lost on anyone. It was a somber morning, but also a reminder of service, sacrifice, freedom, and the importance of preserving the stories of those who came before us.

Against that backdrop, the PT-23 departed Richland Airport for Walla Walla after Day’s Pay Squadron accepted an invitation to participate in Wings Over Walla Walla.

Ride Number One

Waiting there was an incredible collection of aviation history. The Erickson Aircraft Collection brought its P-51D Mustang and TBM Avenger, joining the Day’s Pay PT-23 for a weekend of flying, static displays, education, and opportunities for the public to experience history firsthand.

The weather was beautiful. The airplanes were ready. After four years of preparation, so were we.

Our first passenger was Robert Albright, a veteran who had won a raffle for a veteran ride aboard the PT-23.

There was something incredibly symbolic about that first flight. On the 25th anniversary of September 11, a veteran climbed into a World War II trainer for the first official ride of the Day’s Pay Squadron program. It was also another personal milestone, the flight would become Glenn Whitcomb’s first passenger flight as a commercial pilot.

With Robert aboard, the PT-23 took off southbound from Runway 20. The flight carried them over the Walla Walla Valley, College Place and Milton-Freewater before heading west toward Lowden and eventually turning home. Below was the patchwork of southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. Above was an open cockpit, blue sky, the sound of a radial engine, and an experience much like aviators would have known more than 80 years ago.

The flight ended with a smooth landing back at Walla Walla, but Robert’s smile told the real story. He loved every minute of it.

Robert summed it up perfectly when he said that if he had enough money, he would be in the air every day.

We understood exactly what he meant.

Four years of work had just become worth it.

Day Two: The Ride Program Comes Alive

The following day proved that the first flight was not simply a ceremonial milestone. Day’s Pay officially had a functioning ride program.

Jim King started the day by taking Chuck Balston and Ron Gerke flying. Ron, also a veteran, had won another raffle ride opportunity. Both returned with huge smiles after experiencing what it is like to fly in a genuine 1943 PT-23.

Then came a passenger whose flight connected particularly well with our mission of preserving history.

Rebecca Horne is a storyteller who shares the history of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, better known as the WASPs, the pioneering civilian women who flew military aircraft during World War II.

Part of Rebecca’s storytelling includes the PT-23 and why the WASPs flew relatively few missions in the type. At first, she wasn’t certain she wanted to climb aboard.

With a little encouragement from the event organizer and members of Day’s Pay Squadron, she decided it was time to experience the airplane herself.

With Glenn at the controls, Rebecca climbed into the PT-23 and took to the skies over the Walla Walla Valley.

When the airplane returned, something had changed. Rebecca climbed out with tears in her eyes.

She described the flight as one of the most beautiful things she had experienced. More importantly for a storyteller, she now had another piece of the story. She had felt the wind, heard the engine, sat in the open cockpit, and experienced something closer to what those young aviators experienced more than eight decades earlier.

Now, when she tells their story, she can tell part of it from experience.

That is exactly why we fly these airplanes.

More Smiles, More Memories

Next aboard was Timothy May, who came to the PT-23 with some previous flying experience in a Cessna 172. Glenn took Timothy along the same scenic route, giving him an entirely different kind of aviation experience.

A modern general aviation airplane can introduce someone to flight. An open-cockpit 1943 PT-23 introduces them to another era.

Timothy returned with the same enthusiasm we had seen from the passengers before him.

The final Day’s Pay rider of the weekend was Craig Wahl, with Jim King at the controls.

That flight was particularly appropriate because Craig and his team had helped make the entire weekend possible. As a partner with DW Distilling and one of the organizers behind Wings Over Walla Walla, Craig helped bring together the airplanes, pilots, organizations, volunteers and community that made the event happen.

The weekend included far more than warbird rides. There were static aircraft displays, breakfast, Civil Air Patrol members, EAA and Young Eagles participation, the Walla Walla model aircraft community and countless aviation enthusiasts.

One of the highlights was the nighttime light show, which incorporated storytelling about the PT-23, P-51D Mustang and TBM Avenger. It was another way of connecting airplanes sitting on a ramp today with the history they represent.

Weather eventually shortened some of the festivities, but it certainly didn’t diminish what had been accomplished.

It Took a Squadron

While the photographs show airplanes, pilots and smiling passengers, this milestone belongs to far more people than those who happened to be sitting in the cockpit.

A ride program doesn’t happen simply because an airplane is airworthy. It requires years of maintenance, paperwork, training, qualifications, insurance, fundraising, planning, coordination and volunteers willing to keep working when progress seems painfully slow.

Many people have contributed to Day’s Pay Squadron reaching this point.

George Abbatt came to Walla Walla to support the operation and make sure everything was running smoothly.

Our Finance Officer, Julie Mitchum, handled payments and helped ensure the required hold-harmless agreements and ride documentation were completed correctly.

Jim King helped shoulder the flying duties and became an important part of making the weekend successful.

And behind them are the squadron members, maintainers, pilots, volunteers, sponsors, supporters and friends who have put countless hours into keeping this airplane flying and building a program around it.

There is no single person responsible for getting Day’s Pay here.

It took a squadron.

We Finally Broke the Ice

Wings Over Walla Walla will always hold a special place in the history of Day’s Pay Squadron.

After four years of talking about it, planning it, working toward it and sometimes wondering when the opportunity would finally arrive, we did it.

The Day’s Pay Squadron PT-23 has an active ride program.

Our first passengers flew. Our pilots flew. Our volunteers made it happen. Our airplane did exactly what we have dreamed about for four years: it connected people with history.

We are especially grateful to Craig Wahl and everyone involved with Wings Over Walla Walla for giving Day’s Pay Squadron the opportunity to finally break the ice. Sometimes all a dream needs after years of preparation is someone willing to open the door.

They opened it, and we flew through it.

This weekend wasn’t the finish line. It was the starting line.

There are more veterans we want to honor, more passengers we want to introduce to warbird flying, more young people we want to inspire, more stories we want to preserve and many more communities we hope to visit.

Our mission is to educate, inspire and share the love of aviation while keeping history alive, not locked behind a rope or sitting silently in a museum, but roaring overhead where people can see it, hear it and, whenever possible, experience it.

To everyone who helped us get here over the past four years, and to everyone who climbed aboard, volunteered, donated, sponsored, organized, encouraged us or simply stopped by the airplane to say hello:

Thank you.

September 11, 2026, goes into the Day’s Pay Squadron record book.

Until the next adventure, blue skies and tailwinds.

Commemorative Air Force
Day’s Pay Squadron