USAFM B-24 Strawberry Bitch

[Mark Allen M]

As well as these at the Naval Museum ...

[Chris Brame]

Mark, thanks big time for posting those slides! Do you have any others of that display? The F-89 appears to be either 52-1849 or 52-1949; if it's 52-1949 you've found a survivor - it's now at the March ARB Museum in CA. Also cool to see that Cougar with the 7V tail code from NAS Glenview.

[k5083]

OK, I've posted Dick Kamm's color photos from the prep and ferry flight to my B-24 page. For your convenience they are also copied below.

Pre-flight shots:





















In-flight shots. I don't know what the chase plane was, but it would have been USAF; possibly a B-29. These were taken on 2.25x4" (120) film with a normal focal length lens. The B-24 is quite small in them, but the size of the negative preserved enough detail in 3 of the 4 aerial shots to be worth enlarging the bomber. I have also shown them almost full-frame as I think the plane flying over the desert was quite atmospheric.















August

[OD/NG]

Wow, fantastic series of images, August! Thank you for posting those!

Question - How did you come into possession of those photos?

[JohnB]

The second of the two USAFM shots must have been just before the move to the new building since they have the XB-70 and Major Bernie Fishers A-1.
Is the B-17 in the first shot the one that eventually went to Dover?
Also, is that the B-36 they currently have or the early one that was scrapped and ended up with Soplata (sp)?
Likewise the C-124.

Super SB photos, they ought to be seen more since most of us have only ever seen her in the dark museum.
When I was stationed at W-P I went to the museum every Saturday...spent hours looking at her and the B-17.

[DH82EH]

Fantastic shots!
Thanks for posting those August.

Andy

[k5083]

Wow, fantastic series of images, August! Thank you for posting those!

Question - How did you come into possession of those photos?

Long story. I'll try to summarize without derailing this thread too much.

Dick Kamm was a mechanic in the AF from 1947 to 1962. He was in one of the first classes of jet mechanics, crewed RF-80As in Panama then F-80Bs and F-84Es in Germany, then from 1952 was at Whiteman Field in Arizona as B-29 and B-36 flight engineer and B-47 navigator/bombardier. A short memoir of his first years in the service can be read here. Later he worked for a defense contractor and finally as a mechanic instructor at Parks College. He was an avid photographer of airplanes all his adult life.

I met Dick at Oshkosh in 1980 and he fostered my interest in taking pictures of planes and learning an excessive amount about them. Off and on for 26 years, we would meet up and watch, shoot or just talk about airplanes. When he passed in 2006, his wonderful spouse and I agreed that if his photos were sent to some museum or library, they would end up ignored at best, pilfered or accidently destroyed at worst. I took custody of them on the understanding that I would scan and share them with enthusiasts as the exigencies of life permit. Thus I came into possession of, I estimate, about 65,000 airplane photos, mostly 35mm slides, some medium and large format, spanning 1947 to 2006. This is why I started my web site (click orange box below). I guess about 90-95% of them are just the sort of pics any enthusiast takes at museums and airshows; the early ones are becoming more interesting, but they are notable mainly for their comprehensiveness as a collection. The cream, however, consisting of photos from Dick's service days, and from other occasions like 1968-69 when he went to Vietnam as some kind of tech rep and photographed pretty much every operational USAF type at the combat base at Cam Ranh Bay, are something special.

I have posted batches of Dick's pics to this forum several times over the years, but have lost track of the links to most of the threads. They've shown up in several books and magazines, but one of these days I have to do some kind of a publication of his best stuff.

August

[Baldeagle]

Dick Kamm was my powerplant accessories instructor at Parks College in 1981. He was known for his booming voice that could be heard from one end of the lab building to the other, and for starting a sentence or thought with "Now! Everyone!...."
We shared an enthusiasm for vintage aircraft and I saw him often after that at Oshkosh and Blakesburg.



-

[C VEICH]

This is a fantastic thread with some outstanding pictures. I had no idea that the B-24 had been restored at, and then flown out of, DM to the museum. It's nice to think that the airplane was in airworthy condition when it was parked. That makes it seem just a tiny bit more "alive" then those birds that were restored strictly for display without any thought of flying.

[k5083]

Baldeagle: I have a hard time imagining Dick booming across a lab. He was so soft-spoken one-on-one.

C. Veich: I agree. I like it when a museum notes that a plane was flown in. Dick got some shots of Bockscar at DM as well. This also was flown to the museum, in 1961. No in-flight shots of that, sorry!



August

[Steve Nelson]

I'll add my thanks as well, August. Those are some fantastic photos!

SN

[PhantomII]

The second of the two USAFM shots must have been just before the move to the new building since they have the XB-70 and Major Bernie Fishers A-1.
Is the B-17 in the first shot the one that eventually went to Dover?
Also, is that the B-36 they currently have or the early one that was scrapped and ended up with Soplata (sp)?
Likewise the C-124.

Super SB photos, they ought to be seen more since most of us have only ever seen her in the dark museum.
When I was stationed at W-P I went to the museum every Saturday...spent hours looking at her and the B-17.

I believe that is the YB-36 Walt Soplata took. My understanding is the B-36J presently on display was never displayed at the old location but I also could be wrong. ( If you ask my wife I always am)

[DH82EH]

That post made me laugh PhantomII

Welcome to WIX!

Andy

[sandiego89]

Baldeagle: I have a hard time imagining Dick booming across a lab. He was so soft-spoken one-on-one.

C. Veich: I agree. I like it when a museum notes that a plane was flown in. Dick got some shots of Bockscar at DM as well. This also was flown to the museum, in 1961. No in-flight shots of that, sorry!



August

Always find it interesting that Bock's Car and the Great Artiste were often confused/transposed for years after the Nagasaki mission, even to the point of this post-war photo showing Bock's car with the "89" code and the circle R markings. Dimples 89 was the number for the Great Artiste, Sweeneys normal (77) airplane. Many presumed Sweeney flew his normal plane for the strike.

[P51Mstg]

August..........

"they would end up ignored at best, pilfered or accidently destroyed at worst."

I understand... I'm working on a collection of about 25,000 slides now.... Widow gave them to me for basically the same reasons.... If you need help scanning the large format negs let me know... I've got a Nikon 9000 and a Flextite X5 (which I really need to set up and start using....)

Anyway... If not preserved, little pieces of history will go away, and once its gone, its gone.

Mark H