War veteran/thirtysomething share special bond

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Walter Kaestner (left) and Chad Platt hold the B-24 model Platt made for Kaestner. The base features a photo taken from Kaestner’s plane during World War II. / WADE COGGESHALL/FLYER PHOTO

March 2, 2007

By Wade Coggeshall The Hendricks County Flyer Fri Mar 02, 2007, 03:40 PM EST

PLAINFIELD — Chad Platt was your typical boy growing up.

“As a kid, I liked airplanes,” he said. “I built all the models. I’ve always been interested, especially in World War II aircraft.”

So when he met Walter Kaestner, a B-24 bomber pilot veteran of World War II, it was a special treat.

One that’s developed into a lasting friendship.

Platt, 39, works part-time at the Plainfield Recreation & Aquatic Center. Kaestner may be Plainfield’s most fit 88-year-old, exercising regularly at the facility.

“One day someone came up to me and said, ‘There’s a story behind that old man over there,’” Platt recalls from his first meeting with Kaestner. “I said, ‘oh yeah, what’s that?’”

Platt discovered Kaestner had been a member of the Flying Tigers, a group of pilots recruited by Army Air Corps Capt. Claire Chennault to defend the Burma supply line to China prior to the United States entering the war.

“That really interested me, and I thought I’ve got to go over and talk to him,” Platt said. “That’s how we started interacting — me just asking him questions and him telling me.”

Eventually, Kaestner saw that Platt had more than just a passing interest in his service. He invited Platt to accompany him to Nashville, Tenn., to the annual meeting of the Bald Eagles Squadron, a general aviation interest group.

Two and a half years later, the two have attended many air shows together and visited Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Platt said he has never met anyone like Kaestner.

“(WWII) vets are thinning out now, so their stories need to be told,” he said. “I’m glad I met him. I’ve asked a lot of questions and learned quite a bit from him.”

Likewise, Kaestner said he has never had company quite as captivated as Platt.

“(He) has an interest,” Kaestner said. “He’ll spend a half-hour with me on the treadmill. I’ve told many stories.”

Kaestner has a vast collection of books, notes, and photos on the 14th Air Force, which served in the Flying Tigers. Kaestner had a friend in U.S. intelligence who gave him several aerial photos of bombing missions that he snuck into the country after his five years of service ended.

“As it turned out, I didn’t need to smuggle them back in,” Kaestner said. “I arrived in Miami 15 minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve. The inspectors were all drunk.”

But it wasn’t those classified photos that impressed Platt as much as one taken from Kaestner’s plane that appeared in an official report to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The photo was shot 18,000 feet over Hong Kong shortly after the Tigers bombed the harbor. A Japanese Zeke fighter plane can be seen arching toward the B-24. Because Zeke fighters were made out of lightweight material, they were much more maneuverable than the U.S.’s fortified machinery.

Kaestner has a framed copy of the photo in his home, and one that’s poster size in his garage. Platt used the photo as the base of a B-24 model he made for Kaestner, complete with exact markings. A Zeke is flying off to the side.

“I built that because a lot of people have asked Walt about the kind of aircraft he’s flown,” Platt said. “All he had was pictures. You really can’t take much from a picture. I thought I could build this and present it to him, and he could always show friends and family what he did. This was my way of saying thanks.”

Kaestner said, “Chad did an excellent job on that (model). I was really surprised. There was a lot of ingenuity, putting that picture at the bottom. It almost looks like the real thing.”

Theirs is a friendship that also serves an important purpose. As Platt alluded to, WWII vets are dying at a rapid rate. Some estimates put it at 2,000 a day. This is the last year the Bald Eagles Squadron is meeting. There’s no longer enough members to keep it going.

“Everyone’s too old and can’t do it anymore,” Kaestner said.

He wants someone to organize and preserve his collection after he’s gone. Kaestner would do it himself, but has such bad tremors that he can’t even write his name anymore.

But at least for these two, one man’s incredible experience will be remembered a little longer.

“He’s like the grandfather I haven’t had for 30 years,” Platt said. “When I was younger, I never even thought to ask these kinds of questions. As I get older (there’s more appreciation). Fortunately he’s here to tell you what it was like.”

wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com

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