Jim Brooks, Italy 1945.

Jim Brooks, Present.

Jim Brooks with his grandson, Jim Brooks Smith.

Jim Brooks' granddaughter.

L-R Martha Brooks, Jim Brooks,
Maura Smith, Jim Brooks Smith.

  The Mustang was the fighter that helped secure our victory over fascism, and in the film's heart pounding climax, the P-51 Mustangs, will fire their engines, gather in the sky, and in an event never seen or filmed before, fly in mass formation. All their thunder and glory, passing overhead in a salute to the men of the War, their legacy, and the planes that carried them into battle. 

  It is impossible to tell the collective story of men who flew the Mustang into battle. So "Gray Eagles" will focus on one man whose stories typify the skill, courage and resolve of not just Mustang pilots, but of all fighter pilots past and present.

  December 7th, Guadalcanal, D-Day, the Flying Fortress, the Mighty Mo, the P-51 Mustang; for the vast majority of Americans, these dates, places and weapons of war are little more than footnotes in dusty history books, especially to the youth of today. Such is the fate of written history, and while stories passed down orally from father to son and to grandson are rich and inspiring, today’s youth are much more visually stimulated.

  As a boy growing up in Los Angeles, CA, filmmaker Chris Woods was neighbors with the unassuming, soft-spoken Jim Brooks. Brooks was, and is, a simple man whose façade belies his daring exploits as a Mustang pilot during the war.

  Brooks would on occasion tell young Woods stories of that time and that place and would fire the young boy’s imagination with images of aerial battles and death-defying engagements. Brooks couldn’t know at the time, but he was guaranteeing, through recounting his stories, that at least one more generation would hold these memories for safe keeping.

  One-by-one, the Mustangs arrived at Rickenbacker Field for the “Gathering”. Among them, Chris Woods with his passenger James Brooks Smith, Jim Brooks’ grandson.

  In one of the film’s most stirring moments, the 4-bladed propeller of the P51 Mustang called “February” comes to a stop, having become a veritable time machine, transcending decades and continents so that 85 year-old Jim Brooks could welcome his grandson to the Mustang’s band of brothers.

  Before the “Gathering” concluded, Brooks' granddaughters, Maura and Virginia, took their first rides in “February”, and in so doing, reaffirmed and held safe the legacy of Jim Brooks, his fellow Mustang pilots, and the epic stories of heroism and valor that saved an entire world from tyranny.