Backlash over Air Force Uniforms.

WorsterMan said:
Interesting Dallas nugget. Tell us more about this.
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What I found so far:

North American P-51 Mustang - Wikipedia

P-51C-NT 1,750 First P-51 variant to be built at North American's Dallas plant. Identical to P-51B. Mustangs built by North American in Dallas were suffixed "-NT". 636 were supplied under Lend-Lease to the RAF as the "Mustang III".

P-51D-NA/-NT 8,200 6,600 built at Inglewood and 1,600 built at Dallas. 100 P-51D-1-NA were sent unassembled to Australia. 282 under Lend-Lease served in the RAF as the "Mustang IV".

P-51K-NT 1,500 Built at Dallas, Texas. Identical to the P-51D except fitted with a four-bladed Aeroproducts propeller. 600 Lend-Leased to the RAF as the "Mustang IVa".

P-51M-NT Same as P-51D-25-NT and P-51D-30-NT, but with the non-water injected V-1650-9A engine for low-altitude operations and sharing the cuffless Hamilton Standard propeller. It was intended to enter full production at Dallas, but the contract was later cancelled.
 
Thanks uta
So the Mustangs built in Dallas helped the Brits against the Nazi bombing of London and England. That is awesome.

Blucky ,maybe you coulc post a pic of the binos?
 
WorsterMan said:
Battleship USS Nevada has a fascinating history at Pearl Harbor Dec 7th 1941.
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Yep...to add to the history...I did a tour at Hickam AFB in the late 80s and lived in a house about a quarter mile away from hospital point where she was purposely grounded.
 
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Horn6721 said:
Thanks uta
So the Mustangs built in Dallas helped the Brits against the Nazi bombing of London and England. That is awesome.

Blucky ,maybe you coulc post a pic of the binos?
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As requested...the F-105 behind is what my dad flew in Vietnam.
 
WorsterMan said:
B-24's were built at various plants around the country. I think at the time the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft plant in Fort Worth built B-24's during the war. It later became Carswell AFB and was home to a SAC base IIRC. Later General Dynamics. Today it is the joint Navy Army reserve base and the plant is Raytheon?
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Also built at Carswell: B-58, F-111 (went from a triple threat - bomb you, strafe you, or fall on you) to be the best precision fighter of the USAF, F-16 we're built. Currently the F-35's are being built there (Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Ft. Worth).
 
WorsterMan said:
It later became Carswell AFB and was home to a SAC base IIRC. Later General Dynamics. Today it is the joint Navy Army reserve base and the plant is Raytheon?
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It was indeed a SAC base - 7th Bomb Wing (B-52). Carswell lost the Bomb Wing, but acquired the new role as NAS Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base. The Navy is the host for the base, but there are several reserve units based there now.
General Dynamics sold the factory to Lockheed in the early 90s - It's now Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. Now full speed ahead on F-35 produktion.
 
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Had a friend who grew up near the runway and loved seeing and hearing the B52s take off. He said his dad told him that was the sound and sight of freedom
Most of you will truly love this vid
 
I grew up in FW but not close to Carswell.

However, many times I was close enough to the runway at Carswell to see, experience loud and vibrating takeoffs of BADASS B-52's!!!

ALLSOME!!!!
 
ViperHorn said:
The B-24s were more difficult to fly and land than the B-17's.
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And it's my understanding that the odds of surviving a landing on water in a B-24 were much worse because the fuselage took the brunt of the impact (with the wings being mounted higher up on the fuselage).

I probably mentioned it in the past, but my mom's older brother was a B-24 pilot (15th Air Force, 464th Heavy Bombardment Group, 777th Squadron). Here's a picture of him with his crew at advanced training in Colorado Springs (he's 2nd from left in the back row):
8VEUqu7.jpg


He was shot down on his first mission (over Vienna, which he later described as "a flak trap") and spent 10 months as a POW before being liberated by U.S. troops.
5vQEuRQ.jpg

It's really impressive how the Army (and the Navy as well) were able to set up a system for training civilians like my uncle and thousands of others like him to be pilots, navigators, and bombardiers. (The Axis powers could not match this.) I read that the system was so successful that by December 1944 that Army wasn't accepting any more applicants for pilot training.
 
Giovanni Jones said:
And it's my understanding that the odds of surviving a landing on water in a B-24 were much worse because the fuselage took the brunt of the impact (with the wings being mounted higher up on the fuselage).

I probably mentioned it in the past, but my mom's older brother was a B-24 pilot (15th Air Force, 464th Heavy Bombardment Group, 777th Squadron). Here's a picture of him with his crew at advanced training in Colorado Springs (he's 2nd from left in the back row):
8VEUqu7.jpg


He was shot down on his first mission (over Vienna, which he later described as "a flak trap") and spent 10 months as a POW before being liberated by U.S. troops.
5vQEuRQ.jpg

It's really impressive how the Army (and the Navy as well) were able to set up a system for training civilians like my uncle and thousands of others like him to be pilots, navigators, and bombardiers. (The Axis powers could not match this.) I read that the system was so successful that by December 1944 that Army wasn't accepting any more applicants for pilot training.
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Pilot training and the like is described in Amazon product ASIN 168451262X
Also your uncle may be mentioned in the book. My uncle is mentioned in the book and he was a B-24 pilot too (15th Air Force, 737th Bomber Squadron 454th Bomber). I have the book open now and see a reference for the 464th.
 
Interesting about your B-24 relatives. Brave men that flew those missions.

Late in the war, things were changing for the positive. My Dad was a Lt. in the Navy program to train pilots in 1944. He wanted to fly the Vought F4U Corsair.

At some point while training or shortly after, the Navy had too many pilots and they put him on an LST in the Pacfic for the remainder of the war. Probably saved his life.
 
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Just looked at the index, a few bomber crews are mentioned from the 464th, but not your uncle.
 
mchammer said:
Just looked at the index, a few bomber crews are mentioned from the 464th, but not your uncle.
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It might be because he was getting his "dollar ride" with another crew when he was shot down. The procedure back in 1944 was for an incoming new pilot to undertake one mission as the co-pilot with an experienced crew, and after that he would be back in command of his own crew for the rest of his assignment. Since he was shot down on that dollar ride, he never got to fly with Crew 3084 in combat (Which might explain why one of his crewmates assumed he was dead.)
 
Giovanni Jones said:
It might be because he was getting his "dollar ride" with another crew when he was shot down. The procedure back in 1944 was for an incoming new pilot to undertake one mission as the co-pilot with an experienced crew, and after that he would be back in command of his own crew for the rest of his assignment. Since he was shot down on that dollar ride, he never got to fly with Crew 3084 in combat (Which might explain why one of his crewmates assumed he was dead.)
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Yeah that policy was explained in the book too.
 
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