Warbird Information Exchange

That there WERE recovery teams and that they WERE busy shows that that it was considered worthwhile to recover wrecks. Even if it was just bad PR to leave them scattered across the countryside.
Even if normal spare parts were plentiful, having an airframe to cannibalize for the the uncommon parts, or for sub-assemblies that could be made from scratch locally but are much faster to reuse wholesale is the reason EVERY fleet operator has a boneyard of some sort. "Spare parts" rarely includes entire wings, or a fuselage than can be cut to easily splicable sections to save days if not weeks of fabrication and repair.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

I wasn't proposing the depot guys would systematically break down the bird to components into stock, I was mainly addressing lucky52's concern with the waterlogged aspect of the wreck. It would be handy to have such a new aircraft hauled into the boneyard to be picked over for the good bits as needed as some folks later intimated. The maintenance officer would know what high use or backorder items to single out for special attention.

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF