A unique chapter in the 54-year history of the Commemorative Air Force’s TORA! TORA! TORA! was written on Sunday, August 9th, 2026, when three members of the same family took part in the team’s performance at the Defenders of Freedom Air & Space Show at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. For the first time in TORA! TORA! TORA!’s history, a father and his two sons each served as pilot in command of an aircraft during the same airshow performance. Daniel Rathbun flew TORA Zero 113, his son Parker Rathbun flew TORA Zero 112, and his son Garrett Rathbun flew TORA Kate 313. The milestone added a new dimension to a team in which family and tradition have long played important roles. According to TORA! TORA! TORA!, the three Rathbuns are expected to continue flying together during future performances. Their historic flight took place during the two-day Defenders of Freedom Air & Space Show, held at Offutt on August 8th and 9th. TORA! TORA! TORA! was among the featured performers at the event, marking the return of the popular Pearl Harbor reenactment to Offutt for the first time in 15 years. (Defenders Of Freedom Airshow)
More Than Five Decades of Living History
As Vintage Aviation News explored in our recent feature, Tora! Tora! Tora! — Keeping Pearl Harbor’s Story Alive in the American Sky, the demonstration has become one of the best-known living-history performances on the American airshow circuit. The origins of the aircraft themselves stretch back to the production of the 1970 motion picture Tora! Tora! Tora!. With airworthy examples of the Japanese aircraft used during the attack on Pearl Harbor essentially unavailable, filmmakers created replicas using American training aircraft. The Zero replicas were based primarily on North American AT-6 Texans and Harvard trainers, while the more extensively modified Kate and Val replicas incorporated components from aircraft including the Vultee BT-13. (Vintage Aviation News)
(Image credit: Kevin Hong/Sector K Media)
After their Hollywood careers, a number of these aircraft eventually became part of what developed into the Commemorative Air Force’s TORA! TORA! TORA! team. Today, the group combines the replica Japanese aircraft with carefully coordinated low-level flying, historical narration, and large-scale pyrotechnics to recreate the events of December 7th, 1941. The approximately 18-minute demonstration is intended not simply as an airshow spectacle, but as a living history presentation designed to introduce new generations to the events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Vintage Aviation News)
(Image credit: Luigino Caliaro)
Behind the performance is a large volunteer organization of pilots, mechanics, pyrotechnicians, narrators, photographers, and other team members who maintain and operate the aircraft and presentation. That sense of teamwork has been an important part of TORA! TORA! TORA! throughout its long history. (Vintage Aviation News) At Offutt, however, that tradition became a literal family affair. With Daniel Rathbun leading one aircraft and Parker and Garrett commanding two others, the August 9th performance represented something the team had never seen during more than half a century of flying. Three pilots from two generations of the Rathbun family were simultaneously at the controls of TORA aircraft, helping carry forward a flying tribute whose own history now stretches back more than five decades. And, if all goes according to plan, Offutt will not be the last time spectators see the father-and-sons trio flying together with TORA! TORA! TORA! For more information, visit toratoratora.com
(Image credit: Lugino Caliaro)
