Checkertails Part 3: "The Last Voices of the Checkertail Clan" video link:

[Mysticpuma]

What can I truly say. Yes, I shed a tear watching the final credit close, truly I did. This third and final instalment was never going to exist. When the final credits rolled at the Camarillow Airshow, where the 67th reunion was held, I stood and announced "Part 3 will be.......nope, not going to happen...." and that's how it was.

 

About a year later I just felt like I hadn't done enough. That there were still stories to be shared from the interviews I had recorded, but, did I want to invest huge amounts of time working on it? Would people really care? It was a dilemma of my own making but these stories existed. What right had I to keep them hidden? To forget about them. The answer was obvious. Checkertails Part 3 had to become a reality and so in 2014 I set about working through the story. I listened to every recording I had. Anotated them, time stamped areas of interest not heard in Part 1 and 2 and then set about building the video.

 

Along the way my home and work life kept me busy and away from the project, sometimes for months at a time, but still in 2015 I attended the final reunion at Tyndall Air Force base and showed a very, very rough working edit of Part 3 and took the time to record even more interviews and anecdotes.

 

It really has taken another year-and-a-half to come to the edit you see now. Every film has been created in my spare time. I would estimate each has taken 1200 hours to complete, with research, video, photo, audio editing, creation of flight simulation footage to illustrate certain parts, hunting down elusive images and video from around the world, it has all eaten voraciously at my spare time and yet it needed to be done, if, for nothing else, the need to tell those final Checker 'tales'.

 

Here's a little detail about the concept and the project.

 

In 2007 a friend of mine called Ralph Gimenez asked me if I had ever heard of the Checkertail Clan. My simple answer that I hadn't, has sent me on a (in every sense of the word) a journey across the continents to meet and record the anecdotes of the surviving veterans of the 325th Fighter Group.

 

The footage was captured on a variety of media, Standard and High Definition as well as phone and Skype interviews. The film is only available in Standard definition as were the previous two, simply because the file sizes are huge and some of the the original footage used is very low quality. The importance to me is about telling their stories, so please forgive me. When I began creating this nearly 10-years-ago, Standard Definition was the affordable quality, where now even mobile phones record High Definition.

 

Sadly since I began creating the three films I have made from those interviews, many of the veterans have taken their final flights, but, I hope that my contribution to recording their stories in their own words preserves something of the men they were. Over 3000 men served with the 325th Fighter Group and I have met the barest few, but there stories are fascinating, the history they recall is remarkable and each was a part of the legend they created.

 

I hope this film was worth the wait!?

 

Should you wish to see the first and second parts before viewing this, here are the links:

 

Part 1 can be viewed here:

 

 

Part 2 here:

 

 

And so hear, at-last is Checkertails Part 3: "The Last Voices of The Checkertail Clan", which is truly the finale of my trilogy of films.

 

 

[Trident_109]

Thanks Mystic. I enjoyed the first two parts all those years ago and this final section should be just as entertaining and illuminating as the previous.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

Outstanding!

[Trident_109]

Great, great, great old footage. I'm enjoying this, MP. Thanks for all the effort that went into this. I can't imagine how long it took to get all of this footage; never mind catalogue and mark for editing into the production.

[Mysticpuma]

Great, great, great old footage. I'm enjoying this, MP. Thanks for all the effort that went into this. I can't imagine how long it took to get all of this footage; never mind catalogue and mark for editing into the production.

 

Hi Trident....it has taken years! I have accessed thousands of unseen/unknown images from private collections, which as and when I get around to sharing them, I will post in a 'vast' gallery online. I have also discovered 'lost' films including nearly an hours worth of never before seen footage that lay in a drawer for over 70-years. Again, as and when I get around to sharing it I will.

 

It's been tough, rewarding, saddening (so many of those I have met have long since passed), yet ultimately I feel proud to have recorded their memories and be able to share them for future generations to see.

 

All this by a bloke with a love of flight sims, a computer and gallons of coffee!

 

Cheers, MP 

[RobCarter3]

I always associated the "Checkertails" with the 51st Fighter Wing in Korea. Thanks for sharing these stories and teaching me something new.

[SCG_Space_Ghost]

Thank you immensely for taking the time to share these with us.