Even before he could fly, Sandpoint resident Ralph Jenkins was a witness to aviation history when the Spirit of St. Louis landed at the naval station.

As he got older, his passion for flying only got stronger.

After learning to fly at Boeing Field, he took off to California to earn his wings in the Air Force.

After finishing flight school, Jenkins was sent to Europe to fly P-47s with the 510th Fighter Squadron – a squadron he later commanded.

Jenkins called his plane the "Tallahassee Lassie" after his wife whom he met while stationed in Florida.

But, unlike his wife, the P-47 didn't make much of a first impression.

Nicknamed "Thunderbolt," the P-47 was the largest and heaviest, single-engine plane built during World War II.

But while Jenkins and his men were firing below, the Germans were firing back.

Northwest Backroads

Ralph Jenkins

Jenkins flew 129 missions during WWII, including on D-Day.

"We flew over the ships that were heading for the beaches," he recalled.

Now, 60 years after that fateful day, the Museum of Flight is paying tribute to men like Jenkins in their new wing called "Personal Courage."

The display is one of the largest collections of World War aircraft ever assembled.

For former pilots like Ralph Jenkins, the museum holds many bittersweet memories of the men who flew the planes.