F4U-4 97286 Prior to Bob Bean - Deployments & Combat Tours?

[mike furline]

[Ken]

Doing a search on google images brought up a number of shots of the real Corsair and these too:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47751/th ... ss+1-48%29

[fah619]

Mike/Ken:

Good day!

Great shots of the Oakland Reserve F4us. According to the caption is Mt. Rainier c. 1954. Perhaps you can see fm your end any of the last 3 digits in the F4us shown. Tks

Ken: great shots of this unique model. The wings I see were originally painted in Navy dark blue & gull grey. Nice schemes!

Tks for sharing!!

[jollyrogerf14]

Mike/Ken:

Good day!

Great shots of the Oakland Reserve F4us. According to the caption is Mt. Rainier c. 1954. Perhaps you can see fm your end any of the last 3 digits in the F4us shown. Tks

Ken: great shots of this unique model. The wings I see were originally painted in Navy dark blue & gull grey. Nice schemes!

Tks for sharing!!

I've been told before that 97286 is one of these Oakland -4's in the Mt. Rainier picture. Now... just which one? #5?

V.

[fah619]

JR14:

Good day!

That's what we are trying to find out with Mike's BW 8x10s. Some Bunos should be easy to read fm the original photograph. Yess ..that F code #5 F4U looks like a good candidate. We'll keep digging. Tks for ther info/data.

p.s Were any/some of the modelers folks in possession of any 8x10s of this shot that you know of??

[F6FFan]

Speaking of the Boxer, my great uncle, who was on the Hornet, was Air Ops officer on the Boxer during the late forties, early '50s. I have some pictures of him on the Boxer, and of a Corsair landing as well amongst other things. If I can find a site to upload them, I'll post them. By the way on the Boxer, he was actually offered command of the Boxer, but having just gone through WWII on the second Hornet's first cruise, he turned it down.

F6FFan

[fah619]

Mike:

Good day!

Nice finding!

Do the previous pic of the Oakland Reserves F4Us comes fm an 8x10? If they do plz pm me for details. Tks

[mike furline]

Mike:

Good day!

Nice finding!

Do the previous pic of the Oakland Reserves F4Us comes fm an 8x10? If they do plz pm me for details. Tks

The pic came from the Navy Collection, located on this website. http://collections.naval.aviation.museu ... /Query.php

[Mark Allen M]

That Mt Rainier photo has been posted here many times (me a couple of times included) and it's c 1953. I've zoomed in and cleaned up that photo and sorry there is no 97286 Corsair in that shot that I can see. I would try an internet search for F4U-4 Corsairs of VF-873 if you're interested in finding more photos and data on these particular Corsairs. Here's another shot of that photo and a couple more of that particular photo shoot. Photos Source: NMNA archives


F4U-4 Corsairs of VF-873 flying in formation near Mt. Rainier WA, while on their two week annual training duty from NAS, Oakland, CA July 1953


F4U-4 Corsairs of VF-873 flying in formation near Mt. Rainier WA, while on their two week annual training duty from NAS, Oakland, CA July 1953


F4U-4 Corsair 96783 #2 of VF-873 flying near Mt. Rainier WA, while on two week annual training duty from NAS, Oakland, CA July 1953

[jollyrogerf14]

Close! Too close to not be in that flight! Oh well, one day... one day I'll find her!

V.

[zorro9]

Mike/JRF14:

Good day!

That's ok! We 'll keep digging for more F4U pics. Something else may emerge with the posted links!! Tks

[zorro9]

Buno 97286 Folks:

Good day!

Found a full pic of this interesting bird. Poss Blythe, Calif c. early 1960s. At one time it wore the N Reg N5215V. Note the absent bar across the U.S emblem. Photo via AEC.

[C VEICH]

Note the absent bar across the U.S emblem. Photo via AEC.

If you look closely at the various pictures of 97286 when it was in storage at Blythe you will notice that at one point the red stripes were clearly visible and then in later photos they have faded to the point of being completely invisible. Pretty sure that's what has happened here as well. Why the red was prone to fading so much faster than the other colors I do not know.

[jollyrogerf14]

Decided I'd do my part, and post some pics I have of 97286. They're from her airshow days in the '70s and '80s. Also have some from Steve from the day 97286 arrived by "custom built trailer" in Tallulah, LA (don't think USDOT would let that pass these days). I got them straight from Steve Gustafson; son of the late, great Merle Gustafson.
Some of them are pics that my parents took when I was little back in the '70s & early '80s.
See if I can do this properly....













































That's me standing on the wheel at an Airshow.. Vicksburg, MS I think.








These next two pics were the last time I got to see 97286 at the hanger in Tallulah. It was right before Merle's passing.




These last two pics were taken the day of Merle's burial. It was so crowded my parents decided not to take me. Merle's son Steve and other pilots performing the "Missing Man" formation.




Thanks you guys for all your help in finding info on her, and for the great pics you've posted!
Vince

[famvburg]

Thanks for posting these pics. As soon as I saw some of the last pics I thought it looked like the last airshow that was held at Vicksburg, April 9, 1978. I had just started working at VKS afternoons and weekends a few weeks or so earlier. I almost had a ride in both the 2 seat Sea Fury and the Avenger but had to work the airshow. Hey! I wonder if that's me cleaning the windshield in the pic with you standing on the tire. I remember I wore a pair of "in style" faded big-bell-bottom jeans and they kept catching the heels of my boots and at that time I had and wore a red cap from the crop dusting guy my dad flew for and back then I always wore a cap. Gee, I do wonder!