Warbird Information Exchange

Need help in locating one or two decent photos of a 161st Liaison Squadron Stinson L-5E or L-5G while this unit was stationed at France Field, Canal Zone, and same for North American F-82Fs of the 319th Fighter Squadron (All Weather) circa 1946-1949.

Hi RB......Sorry that I cannot help u with any fotos, but what struck me was the mention of France Field in Panama!!!! i did not know that anyone was actually stationed there sicne it was such small airfield when I was there in 1957. I was part of MASS-1, 2nd MAW out of Cherry PT, and we went to Panama for 3 months, first at France field and we set up our bombing radar in the grass field there and were part of CARIBEX exercises. Idid take some picturres there of the lfight line but I wud have to find the slide, butI only have one pix of me standing next to a photo Cougar. We then moved to Rio hato, about 75 miles north of Panama city to bomb there in the mountains, and we lived in tents for 3 month. We had a radar system that had a 40 mile range and we controlled the planes with a computer after the radar locked on. Rio Hato had an 8000 ft runway and the PanAmerian hwy ran thru the middle of it, so we had to stop traffic if any planes landed, but none were based with us, so they came from Albrook, or other ofthemany air bases that were there back then. But sorry I cannot help u, but good to hear about France AFB and it existed back then. Paul ps what is a F-82F?? I know the F-80 and F-84 but did not know the F-82 but will look it up !!!!

RB Ok sorry, i found the F-82 is the twin mujstang,and I just never looked at that plane much and neverknew its designator. paul

Knew a guy who was posted there in the war, long since gone west, but never got any pictures. He said they even had some L-6s there. Would love to see a picture of that.

I will check for you. I have some original negs from France Field 1948, posted a few of them here several years ago:

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... w=previous

I don't recall whether I have any Stinsons or F-82s in the file but will look.

August

Here's the only photo I have of an L-5 from France Field. Sorry it's not much good, this is a radical crop of the plane on takeoff shot with a normal length lens. No way to read the serial although the basis of the paint scheme are evident. This would be early 1948.

I don't have any F-82 pics which suggests to me that there weren't any there at that particular time, as my friend got pics of T-6s, C-45s, even a PQ-14, and wouldn't have neglected F-82s.

August

Many thanks to Clipper, Obergrafeter and August. The US aviation establishment in the former Canal Zone has been one of my passions for many years. I did a book back in the 1990s entitled "Alae Supra Canalem (Wings Over the Canal)" for Turner, and since then, with additional material I had left over, have been doing a series for the "Journal" of the AAHS entitled "Sentimental Journey: The Forgotten Airfields of the Sixth Air Force." So far, I have done (Old) France Field, Albrook and Howard, and am now working on (New) France Field - with Rio Hato up next. The USAF establishment in the CZ post-war is a real black hole, so I am trying to find decent illustrations of representative types from the units that were stationed there. August, can you possibly tell the s/n on the L-5 in your wonderful picture? Almost has to be a 161st Liaison Squadron aircraft, although there were a few others assigned at Albrook as well.

Sorry RB, what you see above is pretty much the most that can be extracted from the neg. This is an extreme crop, the plane is really a small object in the center of the neg, and the serial just isn't resolved.

If I can be of more help with other types, let me know. I don't have many pics, just a couple dozen b/w negs and a few Kodachromes, but as shown by my prior thread linked above, the variety of types was surprising. My friend was an RF-80 mechanic so the best coverage is of those, including the few color shots. There are also a few pics of the barracks, boating on the canal and other slice-of-life stuff if that is of interest.

August

Thanks August. You might recall that we corresponded about Richard Kamm's images while I was still with NASM and living in Fairfax, VA. I am now the Curator at The Museum of Flight in Seattle. Any chance you could make me an enlargement of the L-5 image and send it to me?? I haven't had much luck getting publishable images from on-line downloads. My 3-mail address is hagedorn_dan@comcast.net

Ah Dan, didn't know that was you! Happy to provide the print. Welcome aboard!

August

Hello RB......Back to France field....I just located some slides I took there in 1957, pix of lineup of FJ3 Furys, VMF 312. Some skyraiders, F9F cougar, R4D(boxcar), but the prob is that they are not closeups of the Furys., or the AD's. I am going to try to get the slides into prints and maybe I can try to get them zoomed in more. I wud galdly get u copies when I do that. In 1957, I dont think anything was based there as this was part of 2 exercises(Caribex, Phibex), Feb-May 1957. At Rio Hato, there was only an Army group near the coast and we had our tents lined up alongthe 8000 ft runway, and we did notkeep any planes there. We had only our radar setup for bombing in the mountains. The Army let us come to eat real food once ina while and the mail plane just came every day at least. I have a funny story written from a website of one of my fellow Marines who recently passed away in S.Dak(richard harters world) and he tells of our trip to Rio Hato, so I will put the site at the end if u care to read and his web site is very big with all kinds of subjects. http://home.tiac.net/~cri_a/military/marine.html He misspells Rio Hato as rio hata, and I told him to correct it, but never did. I can send u copies of few pix of our area there, but the radar was off limits. I wud like to find a copy of your book too, tks Paul(clipper)

Ref anyone that had interest in Panama airfields like France and Rio Hato etc... I now have loaded my old slides into the internet, after makinbg a cd, , but I can only kno how to send these out to anyone interested, via emails. As in my previous messages here, my pictures are from 1957 and spent short time at france/Coco sola first, then 3 months at Rio Hato, so i f u want to send me your emails, I will send the pictures. Just send in regular email to me at Panam1962@gmail.com and I dont know how to post pictures in Warbirds, so email is easy for me. tks Paul clipper!!!!! Dont know if RB is stil out there and K5083????? ps I also have personal pix taken at Santiago chile air museum in 2011, and of planes on the Intrepid Carrier in NYC,and some old pix taken a McGuire AFB nj in 1962, some in Anchorage, alaska, and El salvador when I worked for panam 1962-1991 end Have lots of pix from air museums in S. Amer and europe but still not loaded into internet....yet?????

I've tried enhancing the L-5 photo and it still isn't very clear; however from what I can see you may want to look at record cards in the 45-34911 to 34999 area. I could be wrong but I'm seeing ?3?9?? on the tail.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)