George Marrett
Test Pilot, Combat Vet,
EWM Author, Founding Member
Wednesday Jan 4th, 2023
No Host Bar: 5:30 p.m., Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m.
Going on 31 years, George Marrett has arranged a vast array of interesting speakers for monthly dinners. You have surely “enjoyed” his monthly opening jokes and introductions. At the January dinner it will be our opportunity and pleasure to hear more about George’s story. Like many of our members, George has a history that is not often talked about but well worth listening to.
George is a former United States Air Force officer, combat veteran, and test pilot. He is the author of many aviation-related books and articles and most recently completed a book about the history of the El Camino Homeless Organization.
Born in Grand Island, Nebraska in 1935, he was awarded the Eagle rank by the Boy Scouts in 1951. He graduated from Iowa State College with a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. He entered the Air Force as a Second Lieutenant from the Reserve Officers Training Corps. George received pilot training at Webb Air Force base where he flew the T-33 Shooting Star. After graduation in 1959 he went to advanced flight training at Moody AFB where he flew the North American F-86L Sabre. He was selected to attend the Air Force Test Pilot School where he flew a variety of aircraft including the T-38 Talon, F-104 Starfighter and F-106 Delta Dart. While at the Fighter Test Branch of Flight Test Operations he completed three years flight-testing the F-4C Phantom, F-5A Freedom Fighter and F-111A Aardvark.
George retired in 1989 and lives in Atascadero with his wife of 62 years, Jan. They have two sons, Randall and Scott and four grandchildren. He is an active member of the Estrella Warbirds Museum and often leads the Freedom Flight missing man formations for local occasions in his Stinson L-5E Sentinel. Read More about George here.
Dinner is catered and open to the public ($25/person), reservations are required prior to 6 p.m., Monday prior to dinner, either On-line HERE or call 805 296-1935.
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Home to the world class Woodland Auto Display:
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The Estrella Warbirds Museum has always been "the place to go" for local meeting, group dinners and even company events. We greet visitors from around the world!
If you enjoy new people and groups, love history and want to be involved in a community project, we'd love to hear from you! We always need volunteers in our gift-shop, or docents in the museum or Auto Display. Maybe you want to get involved in restoration?
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805 674-3939
805 674-3939
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Stuck on what to buy for a special person?
There is always the perfect gift of a flight on a real WWII veteran, our C-47B, Betsy's Biscuit Bomber.
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Sherm Smoot's Celebration of Life went on despite bad weather and a delay in the ceremony. A 21 gun salute was followed by a missing man flyover from the C-47 "Betsy's Biscuit Bomber, a T-34B and SNJ-6B.
Sherm was honored and remembered by 100's and many people went up to recall and share stories of why Sherm was so special. He will be dearly missed by all at the museum, but always remembered!
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There's a new bird in the nest (or at least in Hangar One). A 1949 Luscombe T8F Observer. The Luscombe Aircraft Company made a name for itself building two-seat, all-metal sport aircraft before World War II. The most famous was the Model 8, many of which were used in the Civilian Pilot Training Program (1938-1944) to train pilots in preparation for the war.
After the war, Luscombe responded to a 1947 Air Force requirement for a new liaison aircraft to replace the L-4H Grasshopper by redesigning the Model 8 to feature tandem seating and large bubble windows for the observer. Designated XT8E, the aircraft did well in Air Force trials, but lost out to the Aeronca L-16 on the basis of price. Click on. image above to see more information.
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Gary Corippo Honored With a Roast |
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Gary Corippo's roast on December 7th was attended by 232 guests. Gary was the center of attention as many of his family, museum members, board members and staff took turns reminiscing on how Gary started the museum and would never take "no" for an answer.
Gary as pirate or visionary - or even both! All stories were good natured and Gary was presented an award by president John Couch and the Board.As usual, Gary was the biggest personality in the room!
Click on Gary's image to see more pictures.
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Rebuilding and restoring museum artifacts can be a real challenge, especially when you see some of them in the original received condition. How fast can you rebuild this race car?
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Highlights From Woodland Auto Display |
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Joe Lobbia was one of several standout racing "farmers", raising production grapes, to come out of the Fresno area, Easton. He raced during the hey-day of the Hardtop through Super Modified era, the late 1950's through the early 1970's. This was a period when an individual could still build his own racing engines as Joe did, build his own racing cars, as Joe did, and fabricate many of the specialty parts and pieces himself, as Joe did.
This beautiful orange and white #6 is one of several race cars build by Joe over the years. (Yes, the orange color is Case tractor orange).
Joe didn't stop there. He quite successfully drove his own creations and was very well respected at the main NASCAR race tracks in central California, Fresno's Kearney Bowl, San Jose Speedway, and the Clovis Speedway. This car last raced competitively at Madera Speedway in 1972 with NASCAR great, Al Pombo behind the wheel.
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Click on above image for more pictures and info of this car. |
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Membership has its benefits! Why become a member? The museum is supported solely from private sources. Minimal membership dues go a long way in helping to preserve history for tomorrows generation. Membership gives you free access to the museum and our wonderful research library. Individual memberships are pro-rated at $75/year or $125/year for families. We have six different categories. You can find more information on membership and how to sign up the the link listed below. |
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& Woodland Auto Display
4251 Dry Creek Road
Paso Robles, CA 93446
805 238-9317
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