Organization wants to save warbirds using Kickstarter

"That's All, Brother" is the name of a WWII Army Air Corps Douglas C-47, the first in a long line of 432 planes which led the air drop of paratroopers in the early morning hours of D-Day, June 6, 1944. After D-Day, it also flew in Operation Market Garden, the relief of Bastogne, Operation Varsity, and more. It was sold to civilians after the war and sold up to sixteen times before 2008.

A civilian non-profit named Commemorative Air Force (CAF), a Dallas-based organization dedicated to preserving military aviation history, has since found "That's All Brother" in a Wisconsin Boneyard. The all-volunteer CAF currently showcases its 160 restored aircraft to the public via airshows and reenactments and seeks to add "That's All Brother" to its fleet through a Kickstarter Campaign.

Mission Albany, the nighttime paratroop assault, was the first step of Operation Neptune, which itself was the first part of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France during World War II. Mission Albany dropped 6,928 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division into occupied France. The men in "That's All Brother" were the first to drop in.

This isn't an unprecedented event. Similar planes of historical value have since been found and restored to their WWII-era glory. One such plane was "The Snafu Special," which also flew on D-Day, participated in Operation Market Garden, and was sold to a civilian airline in Czechoslovakia after the war. This is the first time such a restoration effort has been made through crowdsourcing on Kickstarter, however.

A pledge of $300 or more earns a backer a limited edition brass "cricket," used for nighttime identification by Airborne troops dropped on D-Day, supplied by the original company in England who supplied the U.S. Army for Operation Overlord, manufactured in the original factory, on the original machines, using the original dies.

The CAF is also looking for the names of men from the 101st, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment who flew into France on "That's All, Brother"

To learn more or donate to the effort to restore "That's All, Brother," see CAF's campaign page on Kickstarter.

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