30 years ago when I moved to Oregon, I remember driving down SE McLoughlin Blvd. in Milwaukie and doing a double take when I saw a B-17 bomber perched above a gas station, appropriately named, “The Bomber Gas Station”.  I always wondered how that workhorse of World War II arrived at this resting spot.

I needed to go no further than to interview Punky Scott, our catering extraordinaire of our MDS monthly meetings for the past 10 years.  Punky is the owner of the Bomber restaurant at the same location and has run her catering business from the restaurant for 25 years.

I met her at the Bomber Restaurant for this interview, and it is obvious that Punky loves what she does.  Her clientele is incredibly loyal, and Punky was recognizing her customers during the whole interview by greeting them by their first names.  She pointed out one woman, age 94, who has been coming to the restaurant since it opened in 1948.

Few people know that Punky is married to dentist, Fred Scott.   They met at the University of Oregon Dental School (now OHSU) when Punky went there as a patient.  Her dental student was a good friend to Fred, and he introduced them.  They recently celebrated their 47th anniversary and along the way, they have raised three children. 

Punky was born in Salem, Oregon.  Her father is from a logging family in Monmouth, and you might say that her mother came from the more prosperous side of the tracks.  Her family donated the property that Western Oregon University sits on today.  Punky’s “real” name is Ardine, which is a combination of her father’s name, Art, and her mother’s name, Birdine.  However, her father, who loved to give people nicknames, took a word from the logging industry, punk, and decided to call his daughter, Punky.   She has been known by that nickname her entire life.

The story of the Bomber is a story about her father.  Right after the war, he and Punky’s mother moved to Portland, and they both had gas stations in the city.  In 1947 he relocated his station to SE McLoughlin Blvd, which is also Hwy 99.  This was the main North-South route through Oregon since I-5 didn’t exist until the 60’s.  Punky’s dad was not educated, but he was incredibly smart and had a great business sense.  It wasn’t long before he opened the restaurant.  He reasoned that people were going to drive and travel more, and they were going to need gas and food.  In 1967 he moved the gas station 100 yards to a property that had a motel on it.  Now there was gas, food, and lodging--the original “one-stop shopping”.  At one time his station was the largest, single unit gas station in the world, pumping 6 million gallons of gas per year out of 48 pumps. 

Her father had his single-engine pilot license, and he had learned that the military was mothballing and scraping B-17 bombers at an Air Force base in Oklahoma.  He had also learned that these planes were for sale “as is” to private individuals.  At his own birthday party in February, 1947, he said to a group of friends that he wanted to buy one of these B-17’s, fly it to Oregon, and mount it on top of his gas station.  One of his friends bet him $5.00 that he couldn’t do it.  All he ever needed was to have someone tell him that he couldn’t do something.  At the same party was a friend who ran all the pinball machines in Clackamas County and who carried a lot of cash on him.  With only a handshake, he borrowed $15,000.00 on the spot!

Within a few days he was in Altus, OK and negotiated a price of $13,750.00 for a bomber.  Having never flown a multi-engine plane, let alone a B-17, he studied a manual and decided to do some practice take offs and landings.  The other problem was that he didn’t have a co-pilot, which was required.  He solved this dilemma by buying a mannequin, put a coat and hat on it, and took off for a practice flight. 

Everything was going fine until he tried to lower the landing gear for his first landing.  The landing gears wouldn’t lower, and he had to bring it in on its bellying for a crash landing.  He destroyed his plane and another B-17 that was sitting just off the runway, but he survived without injury.  With only a little more than $1500.00 left in his pocket, he went back to the individual in charge of sales.  Fortunately, the man liked Punky’s dad and sold him another plane, named the “Lacey Lady” for only $1500.00.

With very little money left, Punky’s dad called home to his wife and got in contact with two friends, one who had taught him to fly.  Punky’s dad asked them to come to Oklahoma to help fly the bomber home, and he also asked that they bring a case of whiskey.  Oklahoma was a dry state at the time.  Punky’s dad needed fuel for his bomber, but without the funds to buy it, he bribed some volunteer fireman with the whiskey to siphon fuel from the two crashed bombers and fill his bomber. 

The three of them took off for home, but they had to land in Palm Springs to refuel.  Punky’s dad wrote a check from an account that he knew had insufficient funds (which he paid back later), refueled, and headed north.  Caught in a blinding snowstorm in Northern California, they almost ran into Mt. Lassen, but finally landed at Troutdale Airport.

Unable to secure the proper permits to bring the bomber to his gas station, he dismantled it anyway and brought it down to Milwaukie under the cover of darkness.   When the authorities found out about the plane having been moved without the necessary permits, they were going to sock him with a huge fine.  However, there was strong post-war patriotism, and when the Oregon Journal newspaper ran an article about the bomber, the authorities were rather embarrassed and reduced his fine to only $10.00.  Punky still has the receipt from her dad paying this fine.

Today, if you go by the bomber, you will notice that the gas station has been closed and the bomber nose section is missing.  In the early ‘80’s, the DEQ checked all gas stations for soil contamination.  Their tanks were not leaking, but with 48 pumps and no backflow protection devices on the nozzles, there was soil contamination over the years.  It cost Punky’s family $500,000.00 to clean up the station.   They decided that they could not sustain the business any longer and closed the station.

The wet, Oregon weather has not been kind to the bomber.  Her father solved the roosting pigeon problem by shooting them off his bomber (he never hit his beloved Lacey Lady with a bullet), but he couldn’t protect his bomber from rust and corrosion.  Punky has one son and daughter in the family business and in memory of their father and the rich history of these flying fortresses, they have started “The Wings of Freedom Project”.

There is an onsite museum across the parking lot from the restaurant that I visited with Punky.  She has spent $400,000.00 of her own money restoring the nose cone, and it will take another $400,000.00 to restore the cockpit.   To restore the entire plane will cost nearly $12 million dollars!!  She hopes to find a dry, covered home for her dad’s bomber after it is completely restored.

As busy as she is, Punky still finds time to go with a group of friends once a year to a cooking class somewhere in the United States.  She loves these trips, and her ultimate “bucket list” cooking trip would be to take a cooking class in Tuscany.  The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, and I can see an energy level in Punky that would rival her dad’s.  I hope someone bets her $5.00 that she won’t ever make it to Tuscany, because I’m sure that will guarantee that she will, indeed, realize her dream vacation.

For more information on “The Wings of Freedom Project” and/or to make a contribution, go to:   HYPERLINK "http://www.b17WingsOfFreedom.org" www.b17WingsOfFreedom.org