Episode 5 ✈️ Chris Kunkle | Wings, War Stories, and the Kunkle Field Legacy
Chopping It Up with Keith Saarloos · Released August 14, 2025 · Santa Ynez Valley, California
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About this conversation
Some families grow grapes. Some raise cattle. The Kunkles? They build a life in the sky. In this episode, Chris Kunkle takes us from his grandfather’s P-38 missions in World War II—dogfighting over the Central Coast and landing in Normandy days after D-Day—to the airfield that now bears their name. We talk about keeping aviation alive in the Valley, giving local kids a free shot at a pilot’s license, and the quiet heroics of flying supplies into the backcountry when floods cut neighbors off from the world. Legacy, grit, and the kind of community you can only understand if you’ve seen it from the air.
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Saarloos + Sons archive horse and rider. Context photograph; not a portrait of the guest or a photograph of this recording.
