Among the warbirds, a weekend for family and flight

PUNGO – Aiden Brown, 7, was a very happy young man amid this year’s Warbirds Over the Beach air show.

The annual celebration of World War II aircraft and military history brings thousands of people to the Military Aviation Museum.

Brown is a local, from the Glenwood area, and it was a happy accident that his dad, Anthony Brown, and Kim Cardin, brought him out to the museum on Saturday, May 16, squarely in the middle of the three day show.

Not long ago, Anthony Brown and Cardin had driven by the museum.

“We knew he would love it,” Anthony Brown said.

It was closed.

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“We didn’t have Aiden,” Cardin said.

 And on the Saturday they came back, they found a crowded museum and airfield, displays of period military gear and uniforms, memorabilia, food, even live period music — after a stop at the dinosaur statues near the entrance off Princess Anne Road, that is.

“It started with the dinosaurs,” Anthony Brown said, “and then it was the planes.”

“I like the pterodactyl,” Aiden said.

Some early, early flight.

“I love the planes,” Aiden said, as they walked down the flight line, stopping to look at aircraft after aircraft.

“We’re working our way down to look at everything,” he added.

“Anything military, he loves,” Cardin said.

Aiden may serve some day.

“We told him college first,” Anthony Brown said.

“What kind of college?” Cardin asked.

“Military college,” Aiden replied.

“That’s right,” his father said.

They kept walking along the edge of the runway, among the many looking at the warbirds on the ground and in the air.