P51Mstg wrote:All the ones I saw were FLAT paint, never saw a glossy one.
Mark H
Remember,
this is a "B" model we're talking about with a FY 51 serial. [/b]
My guess it, and the rest of the "B"s, would have been surplused in the early 60s....
so it's a VERY good chance that it never wore later-style paint.By the mid-60s and the change of Army paint, the Army had 300+ improved H-23Ds and almost 800 of the Gs.
At any rate, I can almost guarantee that Bs weren't in Vietnam in the mid 60s. Remember,
Bs look considerably different than later models, so they're easy to tell apart.
I know by the early 70s, the later H-23D-Gs were being surplused. There was an outfit near Fairchild AFB that converted them into civil machines. IIRC, they were ex-NG ships, since by then as the AD forces had switched to OH-6s and OH-58s.
Unlike the OH-13S, which saw combat service in Vietnam before the deployment of OH-6s and OH-58s, I can't say I've ever seen a H-23 in the later flat Vietnam-era paint with black letters...then again I've learned
never to say never because sure enough one was painted like that
somewhere.
By checking Joe Braugher's website, it seems it's sister ships survived military service.. 51-16224/ MSN 406 went onto become N6746C...but is no longer on the registry, while 51-16226/408 is at the Russell Museum in Illinois.