ST. STEPHEN, New Brunswick – For a World War II veteran, watching the plane he once flew leave the ground brought a lump to his throat.

Bill VanVoorhis, 78, of Gorham, along with more than 5,000 air show spectators, watched on Saturday as the General Motors TBM Avenger left the St. Stephen Airport to respond to a report of a forest fire.

He hadn’t seen the plane fly since he left the war.

A retired World War II plane, the Avenger is now part of the New Brunswick Forest Service and is used to fly fire-suppression missions. But when VanVoorhis was flying such planes, they were dropping bombs.

“We did anti-sub; we did close- support bombing for invasions; we did some torpedo runs,” he said. VanVoorhis entered the U.S. Navy as an ensign, and left it four years later as a lieutenant junior grade.

The avenger was a carrier-based aircraft used to attack other surface ships. During the war in the Pacific, they were used against ships of the Japanese Imperial Navy. He said they were catapulted off the aircraft carrier and when they landed, a giant hook would grab the plane.

The planes had internal bays for a torpedo or bomb. They were equipped with wing guns and a 50-caliber, top-mounted gun turret, which was operated by the third crew member.

“We carried 2,000-pound bomb loads, either four 500-pound bombs or two 1,000-pound bombs. We carried depth charges … and a torpedo. The torpedo weighed 2,000 pounds. It was the largest single engine plane in World War II,” he said.

During the air show, VanVoorhis chuckled as the announcer kept telling people not to smoke in the exhibition area. “Gees, that plane had a 400-gallon fuel tank under my seat and 150 gallons of fuel on each wing, and we smoked the whole time,” he told his daughter Becky Lacasse of Calais.

Shortly before the show was to begin, the crowd learned that the report of a forest fire was bogus, and the planes returned to the airfield to demonstrate their fire suppression capabilities. The Avenger was one of many to thrill spectators Saturday.

The show began with three T-33 jet-training planes flying over. Then, a KC-135 air refueler from Bangor appeared.

Next the crowd heard the pulsating throb of the biplanes. An Ontario man, Bill Carter, thrilled the audience with a choreographed aerobatics display. During his performance, Carter, in a red and white Pitts Special biplane, executed tail slides, loops, multiple snap rolls and a low-level knife-edge pass that had spectators oohing and aahing.

After that performance, Virginia-based Kirk Wicker, in a 450 Stearman biplane nicknamed “the Beast,” took to the air, with his wife, Jane Wicker, standing on the top wing. The couple’s aerobatics included flying the plane upside down with Mrs. Wicker hanging on.

In addition to the biplane thrills, the show presented helicopters, including a Blackhawk from the 112th Medivac Squadron in Bangor.