The Mitchell B-25 medium bomber was one of the workhorses of the Army Air Force during WWII. It was made famous by Gen. (then Lt. Col.) Jimmy Doolittle's daredevil Tokyo Raid on April 18, 1942 when 16 B-25s took off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, each carrying four 500-lb. bombs to drop on Japanese cities as a symbolic retaliation for Pearl Harbor. During the course of the war some 10,743 B-25s were produced and many were converted to civilian use following the war. Approximately 75 are still in flyable condition today, although most sit in air museums awaiting their final flight which, as it turns out, was their last one. A handful are presently active, appearing mostly at air shows. Cost is a factor in present day flying - it takes about $600/hr. to put one in the air. In The Mood is one of the few that are still flying. She is presently based in Northern California. It didn't take much coaxing by professional photographer Ron Kimball to get SAAC member Forrest Straight to drive CSX3183 out to the Half Moon Bay (CA) airport for a last light photo shoot.

Photo by Ron Kimball; magical pixel manipulation by Randy Ream.