Warbird Information Exchange

As promised, I'm back from Illinois with some photos from my dad's album. He and I went through the album and the journal he wrote while he was in the USAF stationed at Itami AFB and Bofu, Japan as a weather observer from April 1948 to March 1949.


Overview of Itami AFB


My dad, Cpl. James D. Brame, in P-84B 45-59536


P-51D "Shirley" - whose mount was this?


My dad in P-51D/F-6D 44-84538 (is this "Shirley" again?)


3 P-51s/F-6s undergoing repairs at Itami


Dad again in FP-80A-5-LO 45-8??? He saw one of these having a mock dogfight with an F-82.




P-51s, AT-6s and A-26s on the Itami flightline




A-26C 44-35??? from the 405th BS, and a friend of my dad


Dad was later sent to Bofu, a more primitive facility that had been vacated by the New Zealanders.


This was supposed to be the last base flying P-61s, as seen in this detail.

Happy New Year to all my fellow WIXers from my dad and me!

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Thanks Chris
Always a rare pleasure to view someones personal photos. I think must of us history junkies get tired of seeing the same popular pictures and footage over and over again so it is a real treat to look through another window onto a time that was. hanks again.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Chris

highly interesting photographs and for me as a P-51 'madman' especially welcome.


Some observations:

- 44-84538 in fact was a F-6D recon ship, soon to be redesignated RF-51D

- "Shirley" also is interesting in terms of radio equipment; there is a 2nd antenna installed below the fuselage (behind your dad in the 3rd photo) which usually was there when a 2nd Bendix SRC 522 was installed, often used for radio relay purposes.

- at least two of the a/c in the 5th photo are F-6's, too; on the a/c in the middle, the camera access hatch is open. A good guess is that these a/c belong to the 71st TRG

Martin / Swiss Mustangs

These pictures are great. Is there any stories written, either in book form or on the internet from a mechanics perspective of taking care of these airplanes? Most of the stuff I have read is from the pilots perspective and I would love to read the trials and tribulations of the crew chiefs, armorers, engine mechanics, etc.....

Happy New Year,
Scott

Glad you liked the pictures! I'm not sure about the groups but his journal mentioned the 25th Tactical Reconnaisance Squadron, as well as the 405th Bomb Squadron and the 71st and 89th Fighter Squadrons.

_________________

All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

the 25th TRS indeed was assigned to the 71st TRG... flew L-5's during the war.

also the other units are very good leads for research

71st FS was a P-80 unit based stateside during this period
89th FS was a P-40 and later P-47 unit attached to the 80th FG during the war in CBI and doesn't seem to have been active after 1946...

405th BS was a B-25 unit attached to the 38th BG in the PTO during the war


I again see the mere lack of information related to post-war occupational units - while I now have a firm grip of the organisation in Germany, the Japan based units are still subject to further research.

Many units were disbanded after the war while new units were reactivated - this usually was paperwork shuffle only, which boils down to the mere renumbering of units - the 'old units' transferring to the U.S. without planes and personnel, while the 'new' units being (re-)formed on the same date/place as the old one was disbanded......

Cheers
Martin