Keeping History Alive: Altus A-Team volunteers to keep ‘Doc’ soaring

Published April 10, 2025
By Senior Airman Kari Degraffenreed
97th Air mobility Wing Public Affairs

ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --

Nearly every week for more than a decade, Donald Obreiter, 97th Maintenance Squadron director, joins a team of volunteers in maintaining the B-29 Superfortress ‘Doc’ at its hangar in Wichita, Kansas.

Since 2012, Obreiter has contributed to the restoration efforts for Doc as the aircraft’s maintenance director, devoting thousands of hours to ensuring that one of only two airworthy B-29s in the world can still fly.

“I started out working on the other B-29, ‘Fifi’, down in Fort Worth in 2002,” said Obreiter. “Then in 2012, I joined the Doc team and I had four years of overlap where I was working on both aircraft before I left the other organization in 2016 to join Doc full-time.”

Steve Zimmerman, B-29 Superfortress ‘Doc’ aircraft commander, wears a Doc patch while briefing a tour in Wichita, Kansas, April 2, 2025. Maintainers and flight engineers who work on Doc have gained the nickname ‘Doc’s Friends.’ (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Kari Degraffenreed)

More than a dozen team members from the 97th Maintenance Group have become an integral part of Doc’s upkeep. Volunteers who spend their weekdays maintaining the KC-46 Pegasus, KC-135 Stratotanker, and C-17 Globemaster III rotate in and out, offering up their weekends to help keep Doc in the air.

“We have so many skilled and dedicated people, not just in maintenance, but across the base,” said Obreiter. “When it comes to this airplane, it’s 80 years old, and it takes a lot of effort to keep things going, so for us to be able to tap into the talent we have here at Altus is really special.”

People like Robert Elliott, 97th Maintenance Squadron corrosion specialist, and his wife of 32 years, Michele, 97th Maintenance Squadron electronics integrated systems mechanic, have spent almost every weekend of 2025 in Wichita, helping to add the finishing touches to Doc’s restoration by painting the original 1952 markings along the aircraft.

“I had been talking with Mr. Obreiter about Doc, and I said I was interested in volunteering, and things just took off from there,” said Michele. “Robert was a little hesitant at first, but once he got into it, he was all in. We've been up there nearly every weekend since.”

For the last four months, Michele and Robert helped lead the repainting process and have been instrumental in coordinating the project to ensure historical accuracy of all the markings. The Elliotts also worked alongside team members from Hangar 517 - Scott Weaver, Danny Sanchez, and Nicky Jones, 97th Maintenance Squadron corrosion specialists, to get Doc as close to his original condition as possible.