Warbird Information Exchange

I am new to this site having stumbled onto it while doing some research into the "Soccer War" between el Salvador and Honduras back in 1969, and during that war, there were many p-51;s and Corsairs flying around, and a former panam pilot living there had a p_51 which ended up being used by the SAL Air Force. I worked in Operations for Panam for 30 years and was stationed in San Salvador from 1965 to 1970, so I witnessed that war which was also called the 100 Hours war, but it shut down the airport for 2 weeks. Anyway, I know that lots of our crews had the hobby of flying their private planes and some were vintage planes too. So, if there are any airline guys on the site, maybe they can trade some stories as I worked at various airports including Anchorage, Frankfurt, and the last 17 years at JFK in the Headquarters where we controlled all the flights and crews. I put a message about air museums at a post about Madrid air museum, so I dont know if anyone has seen that, and I mentioned a site where you can find many other air museums around the world. tks paul

Well, since no one seemsto reply to my site here, I guess there are no airline people who are on this site. There are quite a few air museums around the world that not only have warbirds, but have commercial airliners too and I enjoy both types of aircraft when I visit the museums. During my Marine corps tour, I dealt with all types of fighters and fighter bombers while operating our bombing radar system (MPQ-14), in the 1950's so we used Skyraiders, Banshees, Cougars,panthers, Furys, Crusaders, Skynights, and we even experimented with the MArineversion of the C-119 boxcar ,I forget the navy designation rite off now,maybe R4D, for supply drops on pallets out of the plane which turned out to be a disaster. By 1954, I guess we were done with the Mustangs and the Corsairs, and the only prop we used was the Skyraider,which was the best to control since it gave us a good radar return with the prop and the size, otherwise, a faster jet wud unlock off the radar and needed to abort the bomb run especially coming out of the orbit in a sharp turn. We spent 3 months in panama at Rio Hato at the bombing range and had the highest score and better than the dive bombers and the loft bombers. Well, I will hope that someone will reply either with airline interest, or some Marine Aviation. ( 2nd Maw,cherry Pt NC) Paul

Greetings Paul, not much help for the airline business as it's not of interest to me, but yes there are several folks here that are in the business that may chime in soon. Here's a few photos of MCAS Cherry Point Corsairs in 1949 you may find interesting.

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America ... explain how you are NOT Racist, you'll except tyranny from a white man, but you won't take health care from a black man.
... Foolish, foolish foolish!!!.

Regional airline..............15 yrs.............been there done that. Soaring with the Eagle now at a Service Center in New England

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

Hi Mark Allen.......Thanks for making contact with me andfor a while,I thought that airline guys were not welcome with the warbird gang haha. Tks for the pix of the Corsairs at Cherry Pt, and I wud like to somehow copy those to send to one of my Panam retired guys who flew Corsairs in WW2 with VMF 214 which was the squadrom of Pappy Boyington, the Black Sheep guys. He lives closeby here on Long island but I know he was having some med problems and he did not reply to me when I got his email. I shud try again as he wud like that. I used to salute him on duty as he was a retired General in reserves, but a colonel for real. I was only a Cpl sorry !!!We didnot have any Corsairs around when I was there 1955-1957, but they were a great plane in WW2/. We ere a radar squadron, but we used to go onmaneuvers with the ground guys from Camp LeJeune, and also go out to an old WW2 abandoned airfield off Cape Hatteras, called Atlantic, and we wud practice drops on some sunken barges off the coast. Funny story,once our computer guy put the x and y coordinates in backrds, and lucky the plane dropped off the radar as he wsas heading for a town in NC and who knows what wud hav happened, but it was just a practice bomb. If you wantto read a story of our Panama exercise, I can five u a website of a guy who was in my outfit wjho has a big website but unfortunately he just passed away a few months ago in S. Dakota, but its sort of funny about his time with the Marines. Regards Semper fi Paul ps where are u located??? if u want to reveal but not required!! sorry for getting long winded butI got so excited haha

Hi N3Njeff. Thanks for the note, and I was with panam for 30 years, but my son has worked in the Regional Air business since 1988, and started with Presidential, then Bizex, AmerEagle, and Comair,all at Islip NY airport, and is now with Piedmont which is USAir. I have a good friend in Bristol Vt, but not an air-related guy. Ihave an Ops background for 13 years, then got into what panam called Crew Tracking where we took control over the crew, all crews including the Flight Atts., when they left home base until they got back, so we did all the crew reroutes, so we werer not too well liked by crews. As OPS reps, we were not Dispatchers, but we worked under their control and made all the lfight plans at the stations for the dispatchers,and we did all the weight and balances, and the fuel instructions, crew briefing for meteo etc. I also worked at JFK in the crew briefing office, but if i cud not answser a question , the crew called their dispatcher . What type of Service Center do you mean and do fly??? i guess soaring means flying, or can mean gliding too , so please claify if u care to. Tks for the reply. Paul

Just retired on July 1 after a 33 year career with Delta Air Lines in the TechOps division (maintenance). I worked on DC-8, DC-9, DC-10, MD11, MD88, MD90, A310, A320, A330, B727, B737 (-200, -300, -700, -800), B747, B757, B767, B777 and L-1011 aircraft during my career. Now I spend some time volunteering with the Liberty Foundation helping maintain The Movie Memphis Belle and the foundations' P-40.
Airliners and Warbirds do go together!!

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Rod Schneider
Ball Ground, Ga

Worked for Commutair in PLB NY for 6 yrs .................USAir
Then was ExpressJet for the remainder, BTV, RIC for a month and TYS for a yr then done!!

In TYS, I worked with a Bob Packenger, he was PanAm at JFK.

Now working for Pratt & Whitney at the BTV service center (hense with my soaring with the eagle comment) Whats funny is that I am the only one in the shop with Radial engine exp.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

34 years at UAL. Every time I go to an airport these days, I'm thankful I retired in '93. What a zoo. Really couldn't care less what the airlines are doing now.

Mudge the geezer

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Land of the free because of the brave

Hi Mudge Tks for the reply and congrats on your long career with UAL Yes I can agree with you and its not like it used to be and travel was a pleasure then with out all the hassels now. i cannot believe how many people travel now, and you cannot get a seat. i can remember when we were sendingout 707's with 30 passengers back in the early 70's and we wud just show up for a flight without even checking if there were seats. Our last trip back from Frankfurt, I got the last seat on a 767, and somehow my son found a seat on LH to Jfk while I ended up in PHL, so its not fun. As an OPS guy, if you knew the crew, uyou were invited to use the jump seat in the cockpit back then too, so it was good to see how a a flight worked out after doing the paperwork . I am not a pilot and only took 6 hrs lessons at a grass strip in Moorestown NJ when I worked at McGuire AFB, but I always had respect for anyone who knew how to fly a plane. I know that most people on this site are prob pilots, so they deserve lots of credit for doing that job whether its for business or pleasure. Tks paul

To Rod Schneider and 3N3Jeff. Wow. all of a suddenI am finding some airline guys....Rod, as u know lots of panam guys went to Delta after we folded, and maybe u know Brownie Morrison who was one of our Tech/Ops guys and I thnik a few others went to Delta too. I was going to stay with the Panam II in Miami,, had the house for sale etc, then it all fell apart, so I then got a job with an aircraft parts company for next 6 years. WE sold to airlines mostly and leased out 12 engines too. We had 3 ex Panam maint guys there, Nat Carita, John DiBartolo, and Rich Curtiss. That company, International Aircraft parts folded too, andI started a new career working PT for Barnes/Noble books for next 5 years. had an offer from Atlas Air, accepted the job then called them that I changed my mind, so lost a few friends there as lots of my Panam guys went there. My wife got tired of me working shifts again as weworked 4 on 2 off and rotated the 3 shifts... Jeff... i did not know the Panam guy but I did not know too many maint people by names even tho I worked the line at JFK term and later our offices were in the maint hangar 2108 at JFK,,Tks all....Paiul

Clipper,
The name Brownie Morrison doesn't ring a bell, but I did work with several ex PanAm guys--Pete Macklin, Harold Hansen, Bruce Barbini, and Erwin Heitner come to mind.

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Rod Schneider
Ball Ground, Ga

I am at Chautauqua (United/Continental Express/Delta Connection/US Air Express) based in LGA on the EMB-145 for 5yrs. Best job, but the worst career. It beats a desk and my goal is to fly the real round engines or a real Rolls Royce someday when i grow up!

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Cessna 195

Hi Rod Schneider.....Congrats too on the long airline career!!!!I am sure I prob wud recognizemany of the guys u mention from Panam, and we were a pretty close group at JFK even tho there were so many of us, but I never got too many of the maint. guys names. There was a time in early 70's that lots of maint guys got downgraded to Fleet Svc to load planes, so I got to know lots of those, but did not know names u mentioned. At least u are keeping active around planes and enjoying that.We have a nice air museum at Republic Field here, and we also go to the large one Cradle of Aviation in nassau County...Regards Paul

Hi Jtramo Tks for the mail,and you sound like a young guy who likes flying, so dont give up using flying as a career. I know lots of panam pliots who waited some 20 years before they got to Captain because when all the WW2 pilots came home, many of them became Captains almost immeditely. A good friend Wally Dean from SFO took 22 years to make it. If u look at a panam site called Clipper Pioneers, u can read the obits, which I follow and its sad to see the names lost, but lots of the retired guys live some long lives, for example read about Roger Sherron who I knew well, just died at 95, and maybe there is a correlation between flying and a long life. Another guy on the list is Dick Boucher who died at 100 I think, and he was I think the first panam Capt I met when I started to work at WRI in 1962. (McGuire AFB)...So as long as u stay safe, its a great career. Unfortunately, a good friend Bruce Smith who went to Delta after Panam, then retired after over 30 years, bought a small plane in Florida and went over to move it to another airport, and crashed after take off and they found the planes fuel lines were blocked by mud wasps, so what a shame that was, and his wife was also killed on our Lockerbie crash, so you just never know!!!!!But good luck and dont give up, u will l get to the biggies yet Paul