Warbird Information Exchange

I am going through my negatives from 1996 to scan and organize the photos. I just finished with a few copy negatives I made of original prints. The photos are P-61 related and by a gentleman by the name of John Owad. Mr. Owad was ground crew for the P-61s and today he still active restoring Model T Fords.

Anyway... I had a chat with Mr. Owad today on the phone and I got permission to post his pictures on the net. You will find them here...
http://community.webshots.com/album/547440287sOcgcF

Enjoy! Looking forward to your comments.

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

hi mike,

wow.. great shots.. actually I just met up with a pilot from the 549th about a month
ago... I just sent him a link to your pics.. I'll see if he's in the group shot.. He flew
in the 549th in IWO Jima. Great guy, incredible stories.

I'll keep in touch,

henning

_________________
"The best way to control the future is to create it".

Excellent pics Mike, love the 'Widow, always has an air of mystery about her...maybe that's just me! Must have been a blast to fly.

Cheers

Andy

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http://aircrewbookreview.blogspot.com/

Nice historic snaps Mike. Did Mr. Owad intimate to you the meaning of the
noseart "HOP 'N DITTY" ? I'm just curious about the period lingo...

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

I'll give him a phone call this weekend and find out. Does anyone have any questions for him?

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

Thanks Mike! I'm assuming the name has something to do with Swing-era
music, but I'll resist the urge to speculate and wait to hear what Mr. Owad
has to say.

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

I spoke to John Owad today. Apparently "Hop 'n Ditty" is a phrase that means everything is all right. It has the same meaning as "A-Okay" or "Everything is Peachy". Apparently when things were all right they would say it is just hop-n-ditty! Mr. Owad was the crew chief of Hop N' Ditty and I am sure it was. He told me that William Charlesworth, the pilot, named the plane. Apparently Mr. Charlesworth went onto become a full Colonel.

Other than a cold he is having a tough time getting rid of, Mr. Owad is doing well. He maintains his mechanical skills, and is currently restoring Ford Model Ts. In fact he was telling me about a trick he learned while working on the R-2800s... He installed water injection on one of the Model Ts!!!

When asked if he would like to work on a P-61 again he said, "Give me 15 minutes or so to brush up on it. I'll be ready!"

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

Kewwwlll, thanks Mike for following up. I'm curious where Charlesworth
and the folks of the period came by the term. I'm still thinking music..I'm
a bit of a music nut and will run Hop 'N Ditty past some oldsters from back
in the day. The Big Band period generated some real characters like
Ish Kabible(whose stage name was a play on a Yiddish phrase meaning,"What, me worry?"),Spike Jones, Danny Kaye, etc. Light-hearted
fun stuff in the midst of one of the darkest periods in the 20th century.

I'm glad Mr. Owad is getting well, still bending wrenches and rarin'-to-go!

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

I found out from Mr. Owad that he was at IWO Jima. In fact he was at a number of the islands.

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

hi mike!
Great to hear from you.. By chance did you mention the name fred
richards to him? I would bet he probably worked on one of his planes!
I did pop off an email to him but didn't hear anything back yet...

I'll ping him again and see what he says.

Any more P-61 stuff to share? - my favorite bird!

take care,

henning

_________________
"The best way to control the future is to create it".

I'll give me another call this weekend and mention Fred.



That stuff is rare and hard to come by. However... John promised he would go looking for more pictures. I think he has pictures of Sabre from the 50s as well. There may be more to come.

Mike

_________________
Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.