Dwight Fish – Salute to Veterans WWII Reenactments and Airshows

“I’d say we probably had between five and six thousand people come out to the Salute to Veterans WWII Reenactments and Airshows. It was at the Elkhart Municipal Airport on the Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day, and it was just amazing. It was just such a great event. Just an awesome way to honor our many veterans – by bringing history to life. We had a 99-year-old veteran in attendance and probably half a dozen other veterans up in their 90s or close to it.

I’m a 4th District City Councilman for the city of Elkhart, and a liaison to the Aviation Board, and I served as the volunteer coordinator for the event. The event consisted of American and German World War II military reenactments with foxholes and mock battlefields and real vehicles, and we had airplanes simulating bombing runs to accompany the action on the ground. The reenactments were followed by extended aerial shows and, all told, people got to see vintage tanks and vehicles and special aircrafts in action; including German Tanks, Corsairs, P51 Mustangs and a 1942 Douglas C-53 Skytrooper.

On both days, the airshows were organized by Dacy Airshows – one of the best in the business. Local resident Scott Duck was our ground air boss and managed all the stunts and acrobatics and pyrotechnics for the event. In the airshow we had the Misty Blues all female skydive team and there were T-6 formation flights and Missing Man formation flights and on both days we ended the airshow with the Kem Krest 1,000-foot wall of flames.

This was the first time we had this event in Elkhart since 2015, and we were blessed to have volunteers coming out of the woodwork – people were calling at the last minute wanting to be involved in some way. They were asking if they could help haul supplies and food or drive one of the golf carts to help out – I think it speaks to the respect folks have for the veterans that fought so hard to help secure the freedoms we enjoy.”

– Dwight Fish