The exhibit, currently in Queen Street Parking Lot, will move to York Airport on Saturday as part of Aviation Days.
A film about the Tuskegee Airmen and the Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron plays in a tractor-trailer as part of the Rise Above Traveling Exhibit. The exhibit is in York through Friday. On Saturday, it will move to Aviation Days at the York Airport in Jackson Township. (DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS - KATE PENN)
A bit here and a bit there, Jeanette Hollis said. For the past two years, that's how she and her husband, Terry, have spent their retirement -- trying to change the world by reaching out to a handful of people at a time.
For 42 weeks, the pair from Mississippi, travels the country in their tractor-trailer, towing a 53-foot trailer housing the Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron Rise Above Traveling Exhibit.
They make stops -- Arizona, Alabama and this week in the Queen Street Parking Lot in York -- to tell the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black squadron to fly for the U.S. military.
Tucked in the only shade they could find under the shadow of the steps leading up to the trailer, the couple said Wednesday they hope it's a story that opens up people's minds.
Operating from segregated bases, the Tuskegee pilots flew the Mustangs in battle during World War II and earned a reputation for courage and skill.
"They were brave and heroic and strong-willed," Jeanette Hollis said.
The exhibit consists of a 391/2-foot long, curved screen, which airs a short film featuring interviews from historians and airmen and flight footage from the cockpit of a restored P-51C Mustang fighter plane.
Tuskegee pilots flew Mustangs from 1943 to 1945, and the Red Tail Squadron's restored Mustang will fly Saturday and Sunday during the fifth annual Aviation Days at York Airport.
They've
has seen the film several hundred times, and showed it to thousands of people across the U.S. But there are still moments that get to him, Terry Hollis said.
When you sit in front of the 160-degree screen watching the flight footage in front of you, and you look left and right to see wingtips on either side of you, Terry Hollis said, it's almost like you're flying with them.
At about 1 p.m. Dale Pritz joined the Hollises outside the trailer in the heat. He was on his way to pick up a group of employees and bring them to the exhibit.
Pritz, along with a host of sponsors, was responsible for bringing the exhibit to York. He is a pilot, but said the lesson of overcoming adversity transcends the experience of flight.
"I started with $500 in my pocket," he said. He now runs his own business, Pritz Auto Body, and dreams of owning "one of those Mustangs."
The exhibit is about inspiring younger generations to chase what they want, Pritz said as he watched 3-year-old Dreanna Ellis cross the parking lot holding the hand of her father, Andre Ellis.
Ellis brought Dreanna to the exhibit because she loves airplanes, he said. "She's constantly spotting them out in the sky."
Jeanette Hollis leaned down to speak to Dreanna. The movie will be "a beginning," she told her.
The kids she meets, "they've got dreams," she said. "We try to tell them, whatever your dream is ... never let your dream die."
While Dreanna and her father walked up the stairs into the exhibit, a man exited by himself at the far end of the trailer.
He made his way toward Pritz slowly.
How did he like the movie, Pritz wanted to know.
"It's a great show," the man said.
If you go
What: Commemorative Air Force Red Tail Squadron Rise Above Traveling Exhibit
Where: Queen Street Parking Lot at Sovereign Bank Stadium through Friday, moving to Aviation Days at York Airport in Jackson Township on Saturday and Sunday
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Cost: Free
More:www.redtail.org
