Back in the '50's here in Miami we'd have an annual mosquito problem, just swarms of 'em.  The city would aerial spray sometimes, with either a Beechcraft twin tail of some sort, or, of all things, a real B-25.  Silver bare aluminum, it would come roaring overhead literally at treetop level while making its spray runs.  What a sight.  And sound.  Totally deafening.  They would spray in a pattern, of course, so you could hear it blocks away before it flew directly overhead.  Whoosh!

It was kept parked in the southeast corner of the old Tamiami Airport; it could be easily seen from the roadway.  That land is now the Florida International University campus grounds, and the area around the spot where it was parked is used for the annual Dade County Youth Fair & Exhibition.

In those days, you might have been able to just wander onto airport grounds and look around (I don't recall what security they had, if any).  But it never occurred to us to take a real close look at that B-25.  We could have actually walked up to it and touched it, maybe even could have gotten a tour inside it if we asked around.  One of the guy's father's was an Eastern Airlines pilot, so we had a pretty good interest in aviation.  But no one ever came up with, "Hey, let's go see the B-25 at Tamiami."

One day it was gone.  I don't know exactly when that was.  They had stopped the spraying long before it disappeared, so it sat there for many years with nothing to do except look really, really cool.

So, where do old B-25's go when their day is done?

There are quite a few that have been restored and are still flying.  "Miss Mitchel" is located in Minnesota, and one of my friends is one of her pilots during airshow season.  Last I heard there are better than 25 B-25s in the US still airworthy, and many more sitting in museums.