That is a good idea to get some of his stories down on paper. He's got some (as I'm sure everyone would) that will blow your mind. He's getting to the age where it's going to be harder and harder for him to recall them.

 

oh no, believe me, If he's like my dad, as he started to slip, if you started him on his war stories, he would light up, just like he was still there. but he's gone now, and a lot of the stories went with him.

 

Sorry the hear that Charlie.

 

no, it's cool. he was 85, and lived a great life. I'm sure your pop is the same great, tough bird my dad was.

 

Sweet pics man, my grandpas shop hand used to tell me stories about when he was on the Enterprise. Probably his wildest was when a P47 with no sheet-metal over the engine at all and the canopy was basically gone touched down. He looked at the engine and the whole left side was gone, literally. Oil was just pouring out of the block, yet the pilot managed to bring it down. That story or when a pilot decided to throttle up right as he was standing in front of the prop, if it wasnt for "the damned boomer cart" he would have gotten his head choppped.

 

From our Smokey Mts vacation:
Tenn Aviation Museum

 

I bet you are very proud of your Dad. My Dad was a helo mech in Korea, I also have his pictures on cd. The Pratt R2800 was an engine I overhauled while working at California Engine Service back in the eighties. Thats me Rick Barter in the middle picture.

 

Dad was in The Army Air Corps, Now Air Force.He drove a 6X6 CCKW Duece & 1/2! He told me stories of those engines he hauled just by the shape / size of the crates! If you had 2 long slender crates, you had either Rolls Royce Merlins or Allison's for fighter planes(P-51 Mustangs). 2 square crates meant you had Pratt & Whittney's for the bombers( B-17 & 25's).But he told me if he had 4 square flat crates , those were the Radial Engines for dive bombers and some fighter planes(Corsair F4-UA,My favorite!)

 

I once took my Poppa to a squadron party at Mission Bay San Diego. At the time I had not yet been grabbed permanently by AIMD, and was on continual TAD from VF-51 as a young dumb E3.

Twenty minutes after we got there, I couldn't find him - and then I saw him standing in the middle of a circle consisting of evey single Officer in the squadron...

The XO told me later that MY DAD was a walking encyclopedia of aviation history!

One other thing that stands out in my mind happened. I never saw Poppa at work, but I often saw "Product Information" or notes on different things. I knew he went to LA to work on the very first Space Shuttle at one point - just before he permanently retired.

This was also after I joined the service, and one day while visiting on leave I mentioned that I knew he'd had something to do with developement of the RYAN FIREBEE jet powered drone - which was commonly used for target practice. I had recently seen one overfly the ship I was on, and I made the comment: "You know - if you put a surveillance camera in one of those - you could probably get all kinds of intel without risking an aircrew..."

He immediately looked at me and said "DAT'S CLASSIFIED!"

Some years later I got a book on the SR-71, and it's combat drone "SUB-Aircraft"...

Putting together where my Poppa went and what he had his fingers in is something I will probably never be able to do.

 

The P-47 was a HUGE fighter, and was at a disadvantage in a turning dogfight with the Me-109, FW 190, and Japanese Zero A6M........So they did not play that game much, mostly using their speed advantage in a dive to overtake and blast enemy fighters with their massive punch of 8 .50cal machine guns, (more than any other US fighter plane) this allowed them along with their rugged airframe and engine to be the best ground attack aircraft we had. What a rush it must have been to be down on the deck at 400mph, with 8 .50s hammering the bad guys!........An unarmored Japanese Zero must have been completely shredded by that kind of firepower!

 

DustyBumpers this is a must see and is one of the most moving stories of a WWII aviator I have ever seen. This is exactly what you are talking about. The photography is fantastic and if it will bring a tear to the eye of any American that enjoys freedom.

GRAY EAGLES FILM BY CHRIS WOODS | www.asb.tv

 

fantastic movie!!!!reminds me of when hun hunter was first restored, and going to air shows, I took my father to see it. it was a 3 hr drive, and I didn't know what he was thinking, so quiet the whole way. as we stood on the air field, the show started, and he would say" now he's going to do this, or that"etc. as the show progressed, I noticed the crowd surrounding us was chearing my father, as much as the planes, all totaly envolved in him explaining why they did the moves as they did them. almost to the end, there was a surprise for all, they brought out a restored bee gee. when the pilot flew it upside down 10' off the runway, someone ask my father if he ever did that, his answer was, you betcha, and was almost kicked out for it.everyone shook his hand as they left, and thanked him. tears rolling down his cheeks. you can bet the ride home wasn't quiet.

 

one day in the dump truck I happend apon this p-40. by the way, the crab cakes were good, like the sign says

 

I'll be damned I believe that is one of the P-40 look alikes they used in the movie Flying Tigers with John Wayne. Not a real P-40 but cool none the less. Watch the movie you can see the difference for they used footage of real ones taking off. I still watch that movie from time to time. Favorite line from it is. "ACE how do you spell it?"

 

The P-40 was a bitchen looking airplane - but it was quickly superceded.

Of note was that they were among the few launched against the Pearl Harbor invasion.


(isolated airfields)

Their pilots were refugees from the China volunteers mostly....

US MARINE pilot PAPPY BOYINGTON came from there.....
A man that was said to fly better drunk then most could do when they were sober....
(He later became a wrestling coach)

He was a US MARINE F4U Squadron leader - and built his entire unit from CAST OFFS....

That man had HELLFIRE in his soul

Sad end to an Audatious fighter....

What do you do when the fighting is over?

To some he was not well thought of - but for what it is worth - my father and I both thought he was the most valiant of them all.

A GODDAMNED BULLDOG IN AN AIRPLANE!