More Coast Guard Aircraft History

[CoastieJohn]

One of our guys located this color news release from 7/1945 in Guam. I seen it is also on Youtube. At 5:20 it shows a CG B-24.

https://archive.org/details/NPC-11635



On page 16 of the below pdf, there is a great article on this airplane, the aircrew and what they did in the Pacific.

http://www.coastguardcombatvets.org/2000-Winter.pdf

Some new info on this USCG PB4Y-1/B-24.

BUNO 90480, a PB4Y-1, had its beginning as a B-24L-10-CO for the USAAF with a tail (serial)
number 44-41592. It was built by Consolidated at their San Diego, CA facility and carried the
msn of 32-5504.

[jdvoss]

Coastie John,

Thank you so much for providing the footage of the USCG PB4Y-1 Liberator...and color to boot!!! Hopefully similar photo documentation will emerge for the USCG marked the PB2Y Coronado and R5C Commando.

JDV
www.fuselagecodes.com

[CoastieJohn]

Coastie John,

Thank you so much for providing the footage of the USCG PB4Y-1 Liberator...and color to boot!!! Hopefully similar photo documentation will emerge for the USCG marked the PB2Y Coronado and R5C Commando.

JDV
http://www.fuselagecodes.com

It seems the more research that is done, the more new info is uncovered we didn't know. The above link to the "coast guard combat vets" sit has that CG B-24/PB4Y-1 article in it. The editor note at the end mentions a "Privateer" eventually replaced that CG PB4Y-1. Our airplane guy sent this to me a bit ago. I'll research "The Hack" airframe and see what is out there if anything. Maybe someone here has new pictures of it??

Speaking with XXXX XXXXXX years ago he related picking up the first PB4Y-2 in the west PAC area and
flying it to HI where it was officially turned over to the CG in support of the continuing LORAN support
mission. A few pictures he provided depict the aircraft all gunned up and displayed a small bit of nose
art with the term: "THE HACK" stenciled in the aft white bar portion of the star&bar of the national
insignia on the forward port bow section.

[quemerford]

Anyone know much about the Sikorsky HOS-1 Hoverfly in USCG service? There is a bit about them on various websites, but I wonder if anyone can add more that isn't quoted on the web?

For instance there are some shots of an HOS-1 used during the rescue effort for DC-4 OO-CBG at Gander. This seems to have been a Brooklyn-based aircraft but the BuNo quoted on a website for this machine (http://www.zianet.com/tmorris/ganderrescue.html) doesn't tie in with anything logical: "23470".

It looks like the USCG retired its HOS-1s to Elizabeth City circa 1948, so not much of a service life, but maybe worth recalling?

[CoastieJohn]

Anyone know much about the Sikorsky HOS-1 Hoverfly in USCG service? There is a bit about them on various websites, but I wonder if anyone can add more that isn't quoted on the web?

For instance there are some shots of an HOS-1 used during the rescue effort for DC-4 OO-CBG at Gander. This seems to have been a Brooklyn-based aircraft but the BuNo quoted on a website for this machine (http://www.zianet.com/tmorris/ganderrescue.html) doesn't tie in with anything logical: "23470".

It looks like the USCG retired its HOS-1s to Elizabeth City circa 1948, so not much of a service life, but maybe worth recalling?

You can do a search here on the different aircraft the USCG had/has. If you search the Sikorsky's on the drop down menu title "Manufacture", you will find some info and photo's of the HOS's.

http://uscgaviationhistory.aoptero.org/ ... t_menu.cfm

[jdvoss]

Mystery USCG aircraft. What is it ??

JDV
http://www.fuselagecodes.com

[jdvoss]

Here is another view of the same aircraft which should help in identifying it...

JDV
http://www.fuselagecodes.com

[Cubs2jets]

Vought O2U Corsair

C2j

[CoastieJohn]

Mystery USCG aircraft. What is it ??

JDV
http://www.fuselagecodes.com

Those are nice pics! Where did ya find them at?

During Prohibition the CG had AIRDET's along the southern border and one in Buffalo. They got many of the airframes from US Customs when they seized them. These O2U's were from the Navy. Note the 2nd to last pic at the below link. It may be the same airframe. You can see the white shield on it.

https://www.uscg.mil/history/aviation/V ... t_O2U2.pdf

[jdvoss]

https://www.uscg.mil/history/aviation/V ... t_O2U2.pdf

Coastie John,

In the above link the last sentence states "...these Corsairs were stationed with the Coast Guard Air Detachment in Texas to suppress illegal immigration."

Hmmm...interesting concept.

JDV

[CoastieJohn]

https://www.uscg.mil/history/aviation/Vought/Vought_O2U2.pdf

Coastie John,

In the above link the last sentence states "...these Corsairs were stationed with the Coast Guard Air Detachment in Texas to suppress illegal immigration."

Hmmm...interesting concept.

JDV

Ya it is. Were there any other CG aircraft pics where you located those two?

Smugglers were prevalent down there both on foot and in the air. I'd have to go back and look but I think smuggling of Chinese thru Mexico was popular back then (as it now too). A few months ago we were able to pull the service record of a notable very early CG pilot who flew for the RCAF and early US Air Corp before coming into the CG. He also did high performance physiology test flying prior to coming into the CG. He was killed during a SAR when his float caught something on takeoff and flipped the plane. Anywho....this guy was an experienced pilot and in his service record were copies of orders directing him to inspect seized planes north and south and ferry other planes along the southern border. His name was LT Luke Christopher. He was a Major in the other services. There are pics out there of him with Earhart and Lindy.

Here are a three snippets from an offline email string from last year. This will add to the USCG and US Customs story on the borders.

At the end of a year operations were transferred from San Antonio to Del Rio, Texas. This placed the Detachment on the border within the area of patrol and made the operation much more effective. The Detachment operated from the commercial airfield and relied upon American Airlines facilities and assistance. Coast Guard Headquarters ordered the relocation of the Detachment to Biggs Field, Fort Bliss Texas in December of 1936. After an amazing chain of endorsements including the Treasury Department, War Department, Army Eighth Corps Fort Sam Houston, Chief of Staff US Army Signal Corp, and the Commanding Officer of the Air Corps Detachment at Fort Bliss, the Coast Guard Air Patrol took up residence in a small hangar at Biggs Field in February 1937. Biggs Field was able to provide better support and El Paso was in fact more centrally located.


When the CG took over the Air Patrol from Customs in 1934 Custom had a confiscated aircraft that were turned over to the Coast Guard.

The 1934 Treasury report says that 15 aircraft were turned over to the Coast Guard by customs.

Custom history source: - Official records are not clear on exactly what these aircraft were, it is believed that in the mix was two Curtiss Falcons, two Curtiss, Robins, a Douglass Mailwing, two New Standards, a Pilgrim, a Command-Aire 5C3, a Sikorsky S39 and two Waco 10s. While on paper this would look good, in reality most of the aircraft were in extremely poor condition and unsuitable. Eventually all were replaced except for the two New Standards. This totals 12 of 15. One of the other three could have been a Pitcairn Biplane.

Now this is a snippet regarding the northern border CG aircraft. We now know LT Christopher went up and inspected this aircraft too.

Looks like you might have been key in establishing that US Customs turned over a Pitcairn to the USCG
o/a the time frame that AD BUF was active based on a decision issued by the Federal District Court
for the Western District Court of New York in an undated document issued in the year 1935. The
case involved a seizure of a PITCIARN BIPLANE (no specific type, design, or model listed), NC5026,
was upheld that the US Gov't had the right to seize the aircraft as it was used in a smuggling operation
when it was impounded by the RCMP in Canada, on May 23, 1933. It was then trucked to IGA and
turned over to U.S. Customs on June 1, 1933, where it was operated by Customs out of BUF. The
owner of the aircraft filed suit in Federal Court in an effort to regain use of the aircraft. The Judge
issued his decision in 1935 (no actual date) that the aircraft was property of the U.S.A. and would
not be returned to the original owner.

[jdvoss]

Coastie John,

The discovery of the two Vought O2U images was a serendipitous (sp?) event when going through the near daily updates to Paul Freeman's abandoned airfield site http://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/TX/Airf ... m#johnsons . Ironically, I usually do not pay much attention to private airstrips but for whatever reason I clicked on the update for "Johnson's Ranch" in the Big Bend area of Texas.

For those who are interested there were some crisp photos of period Air Corps pictured there as well.

JDV
www.fuselagecodes.com

[CoastieJohn]

Coastie John,

The discovery of the two Vought O2U images was a serendipitous (sp?) event when going through the near daily updates to Paul Freeman's abandoned airfield site http://www.airfieldsfreeman.com/TX/Airf ... m#johnsons . Ironically, I usually do not pay much attention to private airstrips but for whatever reason I clicked on the update for "Johnson's Ranch" in the Big Bend area of Texas.

For those who are interested there were some crisp photos of period Air Corps pictured there as well.

JDV
http://www.fuselagecodes.com

I guess you found a little CG nugget...great find!! That airplane with the horizontal striped tail has me a little curious. The caption says it is a USA plane. I thought it was mostly the Navy and CG that had striped tails although I could be all wet on that. The CG used vert stripes however if we got some of our early planes from the Navy anything is possible. I sent this info to our CG guys to digest. Much thanks.

[airnutz]

That airplane with the horizontal striped tail has me a little curious. The caption says it is a USA plane. I thought it was mostly the Navy and CG that had striped tails although I could be all wet on that. The CG used vert stripes however if we got some of our early planes from the Navy anything is possible.

It can be confusing CoastieJohn, here's a quick spotter sheet on the Wiki 2/3rds down the page...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St ... l_insignia

[CoastieJohn]

That airplane with the horizontal striped tail has me a little curious. The caption says it is a USA plane. I thought it was mostly the Navy and CG that had striped tails although I could be all wet on that. The CG used vert stripes however if we got some of our early planes from the Navy anything is possible.

It can be confusing CoastieJohn, here's a quick spotter sheet on the Wiki 2/3rds down the page...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_St ... l_insignia

Thanks for the link. Yes...it is confusing unless you have a chart to refer to and know the year.