Since 1988, Kent Shoemaker, EAA 419538, has been bringing a busload of aviation enthusiasts from Western Pennsylvania to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. With the exclusion of 2020 and 2021, he has been doing this for 35 years.
At first he had never heard of Oshkosh, but many pilots kept telling him that it was the place you’d want to go to get your aviation fix, and in 1987 he did just that. He drove to Oshkosh with his brother and a friend, and they stayed at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin.
“I was just so impressed with AirVenture and going back,” Kent said. “I said, we could do this for a lot of people if we put a bus together, and anybody that wanted to go could go.” So, he put together a bus trip the next year so more people could have the same experience he did, and to his surprise it filled up almost immediately.
Kent’s love for aviation is thanks to his father. Kent grew up in a small steel mill town called Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, so he didn’t live near an airport, but every once in a while, his father took him to a little grass strip airport about 20 miles out. “I remember watching the planes fly there, and I just thought that was spectacular,” he said.
As Kent grew up in the post-World War II 1950s, he saw military aircraft flying out of Reserve bases in Pittsburgh. “I just thought those people were, they were like my heroes,” he said. “To be able to do that I thought had to be one of the greatest things in the world, one of the greatest privileges. So, I think I always had that to be a pilot would be something very special.” And down the road, he got his private pilot certificate.
At 73, Kent still remembers his first Oshkosh trip in ’87. It was raining, and to take cover he sat under the wing of a P-51 Mustang. He thought that was something you would only see in pictures, he said, but that experience made him realize that is what AirVenture is all about. From then on, he knew he wanted to share that with others.
After asking many different bus companies, he was able to rent a bus with a driver who would take them from the Butler Farm Show where he worked in Pennsylvania to Oshkosh. He also went back to Ripon College, explained his situation, and set up a yearly contract with the college to rent out rooms for his entourage to stay in.
Over the last 35 years Kent has heard countless stories and shared many memories on his trips including meeting extraordinary people such as WWII veterans and pilots, homebuilders, RC pilots, history buffs, and general aviation enthusiasts. “I think back on it, man, what a wonderful opportunity this has been for all of us because when we first started, we had a lot of World War II vets that went with us … and just to travel with them, I think back, what an honor.”
One WWII veteran in particular really stuck with Kent. He can only remember him by his first name, Jack, but he was a radio operator on a B-29, and he served in the same squadron as Col. Paul Tibbets, who dropped Little Boy, the first atomic bomb, in Japan.
Kent loves to do this for people who wouldn’t be able to make it to AirVenture any other way, and his favorite part is that when they return home, all the people show their appreciation and he knows he was able to help them. And most importantly, everybody comes back with a unique story.
This year’s busload arrived Tuesday night, and they will be attending the air shows on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday before heading back home on Saturday morning.
Kent changes lives with this trip, and he is already planning for the next one.