A bronze statue of a World War II pilot will be dedicated Monday at the Boise airport.

It's hard to overestimate the impact Gowen Field has had on Boise. The military side of our airport has probably changed more lives than some of our largest companies combined.

Six-thousand World War II bomber-crew members trained there. Many of those men met and married Boise women and returned to spend their lives here. Thousands more have served in the Idaho Air National Guard at Gowen Field in the years since.

Tomorrow, Memorial Day, a sculpture at the airport will be dedicated in their honor.

The statue is of a World War II bomber pilot, but according to Boise Public Arts Manager Karen Bubb, it honors "those who were here at the inception of Gowen Field during WWII, and in a larger sense all those who came afterward."

The larger-than-life bronze statue will be just outside the airport entrance. South Dakota artist Benjamin Victor spent months researching and sculpting it. He did some of the work at Nampa's Warhawk Air Museum, where he had access to historical materials and local veterans helped him assure historical accuracy.

Boisean Chet Bowers, a B-17 co-pilot who flew two missions over Normandy on D-Day, let Victor borrow his uniform to use as a model. Bowers didn't train at Gowen Field, but he's pleased that its vets will be honored with a sculpture.

"It's timely," he said. "Most of the guys are in their 80s now. I'm 89. Who knows if we'll be here next year? It's nice that some of us will get a chance to see this."

The most famous pilot to train at Gowen Field was actor Jimmy Stewart. When he wasn't flying, Stewart entertained himself by going to movies, playing the pipe organ at the Egyptian Theater and dancing at the Triangle-K Bar. He went on to fly missions deep into Nazi Germany, earn two Distinguished Flying Crosses and attain the rank of brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve.

Boisean John Collias met Stewart, albeit briefly, while he was serving at Gowen Field. A native of Indiana, Collias was suffering from an injury and a high fever when he and his brother arrived in Boise as newly minted army privates. Groggily eyeing the city from the train depot, he asked his brother what they could have done that was bad enough to be sent to such a place. But his view of Boise was to change dramatically.

The Collias brothers were assigned to work as artists for Gowen Field's base newspaper - a stroke of fate that probably kept them out of battle.

"They wanted us to do editorial cartoons," John Collias said. "Gowen Field was one of the biggest bases in the country then. After hours, we all went to Boise. That's how I met Lily."

That would be a young Boise woman named Lily Kepros. They wrote every day after he was sent to England and were married after he returned. They raised three sons, and John Collias went on to become one of Idaho's most prolific artists. With thousands of drawings and paintings to his credit, he continues to work every day at nearly 91.

Stories like theirs are part of the fabric of Boise life. The number of marriages, children born and careers and businesses launched as a result of Gowen Field's being here is beyond knowing.

The base closed when WWII ended but reopened in 1946. One of those who helped reopen it was William Coburn, who flew the first daylight bombing raid over Berlin during the war. He spent 14 years with the air guard at Gowen Field and helped build the Sailor Creek gunnery range the Air Force still uses. Later he was chief pilot for the Boise Cascade Corp.

"I think a statue at the airport is probably overdue," he said. "Thousands of boys from all over the country trained there during the war. And once the Guard started, it was all Idaho boys. It's appropriate that something is finally being done to honor those who served there."

Tim Woodward: 377-6409