TBM Avenger Reunion & Salute To Veterans

- 10th Anniversary -

I made the over ten hour drive from Tennessee up to the Illinois Valley Regional Airport in Peru, Illinois for the TBM Avenger Reunion & Salute To Veterans Air Show. The TBM Gathering was celebrating their 10th Anniversary. And as luck would have it, 10 TBM Avengers where in attendance at this years show. Also performing at the air show was the US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon VIPER Demo Team, the TITAN Aerobatic Team doing formation flights in their North American T-6 trainers, The US Air Force Heritage Flight (F-16/P-51), North American P-51 "Happy Jack's Go Buggy", T-33 Shooting Star aerobatic display, JP Mellor "Spanish Lady" T-6 Aerobatics, C-47 Skytrain and Beechcraft C-45H Expeditor flybys, and a North American T-28 Trojan demonstration.

16-17May25

Peru, Illinois - TBM Avenger Water Tower

The town of Peru, Illinois is a proud sponsor of the TBM Gathering. To show off their support, they have painted one of their water towers with the iconic City of Peru - TBM Avenger motif. We made stops at the water tower at night and in the daylight to get photos of it. The daylight shots were made on Friday morning, before we headed over to the airfield. While we were taking photos of the water tower in the daylight, the P-51D Mustang “Happy Jack’s Go Buggy” arrived and circled in to land at the Illinois Valley Regional Airport which was right across the interstate from the water tower.