"Lil Meatie's Meat Chopper"

[Jack Cook]

Does this scheme seem familar???



1Lt "Zoot" Perdomo & his P-47N Aug 1945
Sorry breaks over back to work...........................

[Obergrafeter]

Doesn't the CAF Jug that Doug got burned in represent that particular machine. Should be close to flying at Cavanaughs. F2G pilot?

[needle]

http://www.cavanaughflightmuseum.com/Thunderbolt.htm

Julian

[Jack Cook]

It's a shame his life was such a tragedy!

[Pat Carry]

Keep the Jug photos coming Jack!

[Jerry O'Neill]

It's nice to see some "American Jugs" for a change!
Nothing like round, full Jugs.
A man could get pretty tired of those narrow, point ones.
Thanks again for the Jug shots Jack!
Jerry
"Jug Lover"

PS: When I was a kid my Dad's nick name for me was "JUG". It had been my grandfather's nickname with his friends and I was named after him.

[FG1D Pilot]

The guy that Oscar is shaking hands with was a tech rep from republic. The story I got from Oscar's squadron mates when I took the P47 to their 507th FG reunion, was that when the runway was built on Ie Shima, the Sea Bees had orders to build a runway for P47 operation of 4,000 ft. However the P47N needed 5,000 ft. I saw a photo of the bay off the end of the runway with many landing gear sticking out of the water. They told me it was tough to get the P47 off with the loads they carried and many ended up in the bay. The rep. was sent to show them how it could be done. They showed me the picture of his P47 in the bay upside down the next day after the picture of him and Perdomo was shot. He died in the accident. His name was Frank Bowen or something like that I think.

This picture was taken of me on the way to Albuquerque for the reunion. The engine seized up on final into ABQ. We had to pull the engine and send it back to Precision for repair.

[FG1D Pilot]

By the way, I spoke to Oscar's son and daughter when we were painting the plane.
"Lil Meatie" was Oscar's nickname for his son who was a fat baby. Meat Chopper was
a mobster term for a Thompson machine gun.
Oscar was a great dancer and smooth with the ladies. He was always well dressed and wore zoot suits.
His squadron mates called him "Zoot". I painted " ZOOT" on the canopy rail as a conversation piece.

[Alan Brooks]

Doug! We want pics of the rebuild! In a nice, demanding sort of way Alan

[Dan K]

Concerning the comments on the P-47N's take-off problems: It wasn't only due to undersized runway lengths. Early P-47N operations by the 318th FG at Ie Shima were plagued by a rash of unexplained power losses during takeoff, and the group suffered the loss of several pilots. Suspected gremlins were contaminated fuel, leakage from water/methanol boost switches, or a lack of the proper 50% methanol solution typically used (mechanics were even substituting distilled water for operations).

I don't know about a test pilot named Bowen, but Republic sent out Jug test pilot "Baldy" Parker to Ie Shima to demonstrate proper overload takeoff technique. The following describes the unfortunate event:

The engine power loss problems had been resolved internally by the 318th and the runways lengthened by this time, but the earlier inquiry to Republic Aviation had brought a response. Republic Aviation's legendary Chief Test Pilot, Joe "Baldy" Parker, had more hours in all the models of P-47s than anyone, and he had come to "show the boys how it's done". He proposed to take off with two 300 gallon external fuel tanks AND a full combat load. Phil Rasmussen protested, "There is no point in you flying this load because we are not going to fly it. We have enough experience to attest that it can't be done routinely and any gimmicks you show us are just going to be marginal stuff that won't guarantee protection for our pilots, so why bother?"

It went up to General Thayer Olds, the 301st Wing CO. "This is nuts. It's just a stunt".
"Give him what he wants" said the General.

Accounts of this incident refer to Parker as patronizing and that probably isn't fair to the man. Test pilots are a very confident bunch in an occupation that tends to kill them fast if they are not. But Parker didn't pay much heed to anyone on Ie Shima either. He had the 300 gallon drop tanks filled with water to add even more weight, and didn't even pause for a pre roll check. He never got the required 165 MPH take off speed. Republic's top test pilot crashed and burned in a 19th Squadron T-Bolt off the end of a runway a few days after Hiroshima, showing the boys how it was done.

[FG1D Pilot]

DAN K., I was trying to remember his name while at home. I have it written down somewhere at the hangar, but it sounds like the " Parker" you mention. The guys at the reunion just told me about the runway being too short. They didn't say anything about other problems.

[Dan K]

Doug, since the 318th FG arrived at Ie Shima before the 507th, it's possible that the engine gremlins had mostly quieted down by the time the latter arrived.

It's also quite possible/probable that Republic sent a tech. rep. named Bowen out to Ie Shima. I'm guessing that the wrecked Jug you saw in the photo was Joe Parker's though.

Have a GREAT weekend everybody!