Marana T-6G

[Ken]

Does anyone have any info on the T-6G's that served at Marana between 1951-56? Specifically, I'd like to find photos ... and more specifically I'd like to find a reference image for the Air Training logo carried on the cowls of birds of that era.

We're learning about a buddy's T-6G and are fairly sure it served at Marana as an AT-6D and returned as a G-model before being supplied to the French. The airplane already wears an accurate yellow USAF scheme and I'm hoping that the cowl badges would make a nice addition.

Thanks!
Ken

[51fixer]

Does anyone have any info on the T-6G's that served at Marana between 1951-56? Specifically, I'd like to find photos ... and more specifically I'd like to find a reference image for the Air Training logo carried on the cowls of birds of that era.

We're learning about a buddy's T-6G and are fairly sure it served at Marana as an AT-6D and returned as a G-model before being supplied to the French. The airplane already wears an accurate yellow USAF scheme and I'm hoping that the cowl badges would make a nice addition.

Thanks!
Ken

Marana has a Wartime history and a postwar history as a training base before becoming a Black Ops secret place.
Was it's D service wartime or post war?

[mike furline]

http://guy1.0catch.com/nostalgia/jos1/jos1.htm

http://www.fuselagecodes.com/id28.html

[Ken]

Thanks Mike, the first link was actually the only one I had found thus far - good stuff!

Rich, the airplane has a 1941 AT-6D serial and is mentioned in a couple incident reports at Marana during WWII. We also know (much thanks to WIXer BennoT6) that this airplane went to the French around 1958 after its G conversion. Benno's records indicate that she served again at Marana beginning in July 1952. I wish she could talk.

And, still hoping to find a good graphic of the emblem, I assume the T-6 one looks much like the one that appears on Su Su II.

Thanks,
Ken

[51fixer]

Marana did a bunch of WASP training as well.
When I worked on base for Evergreen I also lived there a few weeks.
While driving around I noticed a large mound of dirt where it looked odd. Lots of flat land with a layout of square grids of dirt roads. One day I drove over to it and climbed up to see what it was. A large swimming pool was embedded in the large mound of dirt, long ago abandoned. This was installed at a point when they re-opend the base in the 50s and built temporary facilities until new, permanent building were erected.
The WWII buildings were mostly tar paper covered frames but I did find a beautiful flagstone oval, a stone foundation of a building with more flagstone for a floor but also a large wooden floor. The stone oval was also a pool and was filled in with rubble from what was probably the officers club. This had been pool #1, the mound was pool #2.
Pool #3 was still in use when I was there around 1993. The buildings where I stayed were part of complex built in the early 50s when Pilot Training resumed. These were brick and mortar construction and had stood the test of time.

[Ken]

Thanks for sharing that Rich.

[Maverick]

The last pilot training class to fly the T-6 graduated Sept 9th 1954. The Air Training Command logo was placed on each side of the engine cowling at mid point and was about the diameter of the cowl depth. See link below.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... -patch.png

[Ken]

Anyone have insight on how to search the USAF photo archives? Maxwell is heavy on documents and light on photos ...

I know this G-model was at Marana from July of 52 until Sep of 54.