For many people, the best part of EAA AirVenture is heading down to Warbirds to see the airplanes that helped the Allies win World War II. Adjacent to the rows of trainers, liaison aircraft, fighters, transports, and bombers, you will find what appears to be a WWII U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) base at the airshow.
And that’s exactly what it is supposed to be, as you have just entered the world of the Warbirds Living History Group (WLHG).
Kevin Wisniewski from Milwaukee is the cochair of the group. During AirVenture, you’ll likely find him in a USAAC officer’s uniform, including the leather A-2 jacket, 50 Mission crush cap, and creased slacks, interacting with visitors in the camp that represents the 57th Bomb Group, which operated in North Africa, Sicily, Corsica, and Italy.
According to Wisniewski, who last year marked his 30th with WLHG, it began when he and a friend visited AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, dressed as a WWII pilot, and people wanted to take his picture in front of period airplanes.
“One of the people from the Warbirds chapter squadron asked us to come back next year and stay for a few days in uniform so people could take pictures of us by the appropriate aircraft,” Wisniewski said.
It went over well, and they were asked back. More like-minded folks joined them, and soon the Warbird Living History Group became a regular fixture at AirVenture. Many of the members have a personal link to WWII—for example, a family member who served. For Wisniewski, it is a way for him to honor his father, who served in the Navy during WWII.
The group is usually upwards of 50 people. In the weeks leading up to AirVenture, there are meetings to determine the logistics. Equipment, which has likely been in storage for a year, is inspected, and repairs, if necessary, are made.
“It takes us about two and a half days to get everything set up, and then once the show starts, we settle into a routine,” Wisniewski said. “Oshkosh is the fastest week of the year for us.”
The Uniforms
Wisniewski is a collector and seller of vintage uniforms and often has his wares on display and for purchase. It is getting harder and harder to find original uniforms and gear, he said.
“When I started in 1993, I was part of an event marking the anniversary of D-Day, and everything we wore was authentic,” he said. “The boots, the pants, the jackets…You could buy them for 10 or 20 bucks at surplus stores. These days you’re better off looking for original gear at estate sales and flea markets. You always have to be looking.”
Many of the living historians wear carefully crafted reproductions because the originals are too fragile and valuable to wear, often requiring a reproduction of a relative’s uniform. Most, however, are just creating a general impression, but the attention to detail is there, down to reproductions of the period-correct money the soldier would be carrying and their dog tags.
Detail is important. Living historians look for reproduction uniforms with proper stitch count and must always be wary of someone who takes a modern item and tries to age it and sell it as a vintage item. This is particularly true of leather flight jackets, which, if authentic, can sell for as much as $1,500 and up.
Wisniewski is also an artist and paints tribute jackets for commission. During AirVenture, you may find him busy at work re-creating the jacket someone’s grandpa or great-grandpa wore as a young man.
Camp Contents
The bicycles, motorized vehicles, and camp equipment are all original, according to Wisnieswki. The tents are 16-by-16 pole pyramid tents made of canvas and secured with hardwood stakes. Over the years storms have damaged a few and been replaced by donated tents from people who had purchased one as surplus after the war and stored it in a garage for decades.
“The chairs are all 1930s and ’40s wooden folding chairs,” Wisniewski said. “We got those in bulk from funeral homes. They were in the basement and replaced by metal chairs years ago. We also get them from the VFW and Moose Lodge, who have also replaced their chairs.”
![The camp equipment is all original, according to Warbirds Living History Group cochair Kevin Wisnieswki. [Credit: Jim Koepnick]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/FLY1025_2.2-FEAT3-B-Living-History-3-1.jpeg?width=1024&height=771)
The camp also features a Royal Air Force contingent that was in North Africa. Look for the sand-colored tents and the framed photograph of the Queen of England on a footlocker next to a soldier’s bunk and the brass bell that was used to sound the warning during air raids.
Day of Living History
During AirVenture, the day begins with a morning briefing. The historians dress for the day, for example, following the agenda of Warbirds at AirVenture.
“On Navy day, we dress in Navy uniforms,” said Wisniewski, adding that most of the camp is set up to be the Army Air Corps 340th Bomb Group. “Like what was in [the novel/movie] Catch-22. The missions in that story are actual missions they flew. One of our members is the 340th Bomb Group historian, and he studies all the missions they flew in the summer of 1944.”
The group includes women dressed in period-correct clothing, often portraying wartime workers (Rosie the Riveter and Janes Who Made the Planes) or women who served in the military in noncombatant roles that freed up men to fight.
It’s not uncommon to do multiple impressions during the week, according to Angela Jones from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. The day FLYING caught up with Jones, she was dressed as a Women’s Army Corps (WAC) member who served as an air traffic controller. She has been part of the Warbirds Living History Group for nine years.
“I also do a Women Airforce Service Pilots [WASP] trainee and Women’s Army Corps nurse as well as a Vietnam Women’s Army Corps nurse,” said Jones, dressed in actual WWII-issued WAC trousers and noting that most of her uniforms are obtained from collectors, estate sales, or eBay.
As fewer women than men served in the military, when you see an item that can add to the impression, you tend to snap it up or go with a reproduction—or a family heirloom. Jones was wearing her grandmother’s glasses from 1937 with Jones’ prescription inserted. The living historians often research the roles they will play, finding out all they can about a particular person.
“Every veteran has a story,” Jones said. “In [school] class you hear it, but in the camp you can see it and smell it and touch it. It can make history resonate.”
More Than WWII
As time moves on, there are fewer and fewer WWII veterans among us. Their numbers have dwindled, and the Warbirds Living History Group has expanded to include the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Unlike WWII, there was no definitive victory for the United States in Korea or Vietnam, and it is not uncommon for veterans from these actions to be recalcitrant about their experiences.
But just like the WWII veterans, when the soldiers from the later wars come to the camp with their families, they see the familiar equipment and smell the canvas, and the emotional expressions are noticeable across their faces. They also share a recollection from their time in the service.
“Sometimes they start sharing the story, and you notice the family members get a weird look on their faces,” said Wisniesenski. “When we get talking, the veteran goes on his way, and the family member says, ‘My father never spoke of his experience. He never told that story before.’ It’s AirVenture magic, these moments that happen with the family that triggered the veterans…[They] hit me in the heart.”
Living History Around the Country
AirVenture is not the only place you will encounter living historians. Mark Becht, of Ely, Nevada, proudly represents a U.S. Air Force ground crew at airshows and fly-ins in the Southwestern United States.
“My role is supply sergeant/fixer,” Bect said. “One point I enjoy is educating people on both the amount of effort it took to get one airplane into the sky and the extensive training and logistic apparatus that made it possible.”
The ground crew often wore coveralls, but even these are harder to find these days, according to Becht, in part because people are larger now than they were in the 1940s.
![Many of the living historians wear carefully crafted reproductions because the originals are too fragile and valuable. [Credit: Jim Koepnick]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/FLY1025_2.2-FEAT3-B-Living-History-4.jpeg?width=1024&height=649)
historians wear carefully crafted reproductions because the originals are too fragile and valuable. [Credit: Jim Koepnick]
“If you are appropriately built for the era, then originals are not that hard to come by, although they are on the collectors’ market, not, for the most part, the surplus market,” Becht said. “If you are larger, then new made reproductions are the most common route.”
Becht said working with the public at living history events involves playing a character and represents a combination of historical presentation and improv theater, adding there is a “divide between ‘reenactor’ and ‘living historian.’”
“The former wants to experience things firsthand; the latter wants to share and impart that knowledge,” he said. “It’s a spectrum, and it helps to gain some experience to share. I’ve enjoyed both the doing and the telling [of] it.”
You hear a lot of stories that are more myth than fiction, according to Becht, but sometimes you strike historical gold.
“My favorite story was when, while doing some maintenance on a ball turret, an old guy and his wife came through the airplane,” he said. “He looked down and said, ‘That was my office for 35 missions.’ [I asked him:] ‘Not really supposed to, but want to try it on again?’ He slipped in like a buttered eel. Started touching and refamiliarizing himself with the controls, talking about what did what. He grew silent for a while. I asked if he needed a hand [getting] out. ‘Sure do! These ain’t my real knees!’ As he and his wife walked across the ramp, he had a spring in his step, flying his hands around, and she clung to him like a love-struck teenager.”
Scott Dunkirk from Phoenix portrays a variety of roles, including a WWII Army Air Force crew chief—something he did in that branch for some 22 years.
“I have the experience and have interviewed hundreds of WWII ground crewmen during my life and want them to be represented and respected for all the hard work and dedication they put forth,” Dunkirk said.
Each living historian is assigned a role during airshows and fly-ins where they represent—and they take their jobs seriously. It is more than wearing a uniform, Dunkirk said, as you have to adopt the character.
“We get more into the small details and don’t do tactical battles and such but work on the period slang, pocket items (change, pocketknives), what the soldiers did as nervous habits, and how they would act and react to situations to give the audience the experience of a training camp in the 1940s,” he said.
The best days are when veterans share their stories. Becht’s group was in Midland, Texas, when it met a former B-25 crew chief who walked around the display, and you could see he was reliving part of his youth.
“That’s what is so great about it—watching the vets basically go back in time and feel as they did in 1944,” Dunkirk said. “We also have had pilots thank us for portraying and showing the public what all the ground crews did during the war and in stateside training. We did have a great encounter with vets from the 509th Composite Group at their last reunion. They were coming into our living history barracks, and we had ’40s music playing, guys writing letters, reading, or playing cards.
“One fellow who was a B-29 radar operator stopped at the door and looked around and said, ‘Boys, you really hit it. You have the sights, sounds, and even the smells of the barracks when we were here.’ That really made our day.”
This feature first appeared in the October Issue 963 of the FLYING print edition.