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A Fine Day For A Buffalo Hunt

Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:09 pm

A Fine Day For A Buffalo Hunt



The morning of August 17, 2004 was a typical Florida day. The sky was blue, there were
a few cumulous clouds, and it was humid as hell - all the signs pointed to another scorcher.
But something was different this day as I drove to the National Museum of Naval Aviation
aboard NAS Pensacola. It was a day I had waited and hoped for for several years. Today
I was to actually see the Buffalo! I still wondered if it would really happen. Yesterday was
supposed to be the day. I had taken a day off work, driven to the museum, where I rec-
eived the news that there had been a delay. Tomorrow would be the day.

The Buffalo (BW-372) had been stored in a crate in a warehouse at the Alabama State
Docks in Mobile, Al. for three and a half years while the details of the deal were worked
out. Each day on my way to and from work I drove past where it was resting. I often
wondered when or if this day would ever come. I am sure my friends at the museum got
tired of me asking about it, but I must confess I am like a child about this plane. Perhaps
the only warbird I want to see more is a TBD.

For some years I have been friends with Bill Brooks. He is the last man living from
VMF-221 who flew Buffaloes against the Japanese at Midway; the last American who flew
combat in a Buffalo. I have told him for years that I am "hopeful" the museum will "soon"
have one. Perhaps today is the day I can call him and tell him I am looking at a Buffalo.
(Cell phones are of some use, after all!)

As I sit with my friends at Bldg. 3221 awaiting the arrival of the Buffalo we are told
it "will be at the back gate at 10:00AM". We pass the time looking over recently donated
artifacts and talking about President Bush's recent visit to the panhandle when he landed
at NAS Pensacola aboard Air Force 1. I tease them they blew a great photo opp to get
shots of him beside Navy 1 which is in the museum collection.

At about 09:55 I went out the front door to head down to the restoration area. As I am
to shoot the pictures for the museum it would not do for me to be late. I open the door and
am greeted with two eighteen wheelers pulling flatbed trailers loaded with assorted sized
wooden crates. I shoot a few frames of the two trucks and the car with three guys in it
following them. One of them as a video camera.

When I get to the other end of the hanger the first truck is stopped and the second is
pulling up. A small crowd of museum folks gather, a fork lift is cranked up and the crates
begin to come off the trucks into the restoration hanger. I concentrate on staying out of
the way as I document the arrival. Several guys go at the second largest crate with crow-
bars. Soon a side lifts up, is wiggled back and forth, then falls to the floor. There is the
rear half of BW-372's fuselage! This is really it! After all the years of reading about it on
the internet, here it before me. I walk over to it and notice, much to my relief, that the
fuselage has not been "cut in half" as some internet reports stated. Rather each rivet has
been carefully drilled out and the fuselage separated. The stringers were carefully cut but
will present no real problem to put back together. I have two cameras loaded with different
speed film and am shooting away. I am amazed at the condition of the plane. It is almost
pristine. Most of the original paint remains and if there was any corrosion I did not see it.

While I am looking over the fuselage the guys with the crowbars are going at the largest
of the crates. Soon 4x8 sheets of Russian plywood some off each end. There inside is the
forward half of the fuselage and the wings minus the engine and cowling. I step in the crate
with the Buffalo and begin to shoot pictures. Because of the constricted area I am limited
in what I can shoot because of the inability to back up enough. I am happy that one cam-
era has a zoom that goes to 28 mm. There is minor battle damage to the port wing. The
gun bays are open and the guns are gone. The interior has been stripped from the plane
and now I know what must be in the smaller crates. The "Farting Mule" insignia is right
there before me to touch and admire. Again I am impressed by the overall wonderful
condition of this bird. About the only clue to where this plane has been all these years
is that the control surface fabric is largely gone.

I exit the crate and walk over to where the last large crate is opening. There is the
engine and prop somewhat wrapped around it. Soon the smaller crates are opened and the
parts begin to come out. Rudder pedals, the instrument panel, control surfaces for horizontal
stab are readily identifiable. There are the three sections of cowling, the pilot's seat and the
attendant seat armor. The list goes on and on but I am drawn back over to the main pieces
of the aircraft. I think about the history both of this particular plane, the men who flew it,
and of the brave Marines of VMF-221. What it would mean to those men to see BW-372
restored and on display!

One really chilling sight is the pilot seat with a hole in the backrest right between where
a man's shoulder blades would be. The corresponding seat armor has a ding that lines up
with the hole. The hole is from rear to front and the aluminum is peeled back much the
way a Coke can looks when shot with a .22, only larger. The hole is about one inch in
diameter. What puzzles me is did the Finns put the seat armor on the inside of the seat
back instead of behind it? This is a real puzzler.

Finally I make my way over to the oldest of the three men who were in the rental car
following the semis. I introduce myself and ask if he is Gary Villard. We shake hands
and he tells me that he is indeed. We begin to talk. I tell him of my relief that the plane
was not just "cut in half". He tells me that he drilled the rivets himself and that they are
in a plastic bag in one of the crates. He explains that the wing and forward portion of the
fuselage are one piece and so the wings could not be removed. The plane had to be made
smaller to ship and this was why it was separated the way it was. From later looking at some
photos of Buffalos being assembled I understand what he means. I ask about the video
being shot and he tells me that they have many hours of video documenting the entire
project and that one day it will be edited into a DVD and available for purchase. He also
tells me work is well along on a book about the recovery that will answer the questions and
debunk many of the internet myths that have grown up around the plane and its' recovery. He
introduces me to the two younger guys who work for him and were in on the project. One
was the diver who first found BW-372. As he told about it it was easy to see in his eyes that it
was not "just a job" for him. In situations like this I have found that more can be learned from

just listening that by asking a lot of questions. If you let someone just talk about something
they are proud of they will tell you a great deal. I did ask a few questions along the way.
Since then I have thought of some more I wish I'd asked but I am grateful to have had the
opportunity. I asked about many of what I'll call internet rumors. He debunked many of
them. As he is working on a book on the subject I will not relate them here out of respect.
Now I want to say that I have read a great many negative things about Gary Villard and I
know you can't get to really know a man in a few hours. But I can honestly state that all
three of them were as nice as anyone I have ever met. We talked of many things besides
just the Buffalo. He told me where some more Buffalos were, we talked about the im-
portance of a TBD to NMNA's collection and we talked about our shared love of aviation
history.

Subsequently I spoke with one of the guys who has been at NMNA for many years.
He was there when all the Lake Birds came and is VERY knowledgeable. He too was
amazed at the wonderful condition of BW-372. He said it was much better any any of
the Lake Birds. For him to say this was much more significant that just me sating it as
he in infinitely more knowledgeable than I. One thing the diver told me was that when
they first got the plane up and suspended it from an A frame they flipped the lever for
the gear and it dropped just like it was last retracted a few hours previously. All the
controls still worked, air was in the Nokia tires, and the radio was still air tight.

Finally I stepped outside to make the long awaited call to Bill Brooks. Unfortunately
he was at the dentist but I gave the great news to Mrs. Brooks. He called me very ex-
cited later that evening. We have discussed it several times in great detail and the Brooks
are making plans for a visit, hopefully this fall. I look forward both to showing them the
Buffalo, around the museum, and to doing an oral history with Brooks. They just returned
from the dedication of the SBD at Midway Airport near Chicago this past Sunday where they
had a great time and were treated very well. While there he got to see three other Marines
who flew from Midway Island. They had not seen each other since June 1942. As you might
imagine they had a great time and he got to tell them about the Buffalo.

NMNA management has decreed that the photos, or at least some of them, will break
first in Naval Aviation News. After that we'll see what happens. For now I am unable
to share any of them with you. As time goes on I plan to return and document the pro-
gress on BW-372 much as I did with the SBD-2 Dauntless that flew combat at Midway
(Bu2106).

So for all the nay-sayers, all the guys who said it would/could never happen there it is!
The avatar says it all. That is Villard and myself standing in front of BW-372. Some of you
may remember a post I made on Dan Ford's site to "Don't count Pensacola out". Now you
know why I made the post and that I was not just blowing smoke.

There you have it! It was indeed a fine day for a Buffalo hunt!!!!!

Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:32 pm

Welcome back Owen, and thanks for the first person report. I sincerely hope the Buffalo is restored and put on display for all to apreciate the machine, and more importantly the sacrifices of the men who flew the type in combat.

Wed Sep 08, 2004 12:39 am

Owen

Great report. Interesting what Villiard says about debunking the internet 'myths'. I have been in regular contact with the 'Finnish' side of the recovery operation and the backer who initially financed the operation over the past few weeks...safe to say they have a different opinion of him and how the aircraft ended up where it is.

regards
Dave

Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:26 am

Thank-you very much for this excellant report!

Mike

More Buffaloes???

Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:27 am

Interesting comment

"He told me where some more Buffalos were"

"new" or known already?

sk

Wed Sep 08, 2004 7:54 am

HI OWEN!!GREAT STORY CANT WAIT TO SEE THE PHOTOS!!WILL IT BE RESTORED OR JUST REASSEMBLED?ITS A NICE PIECE OF HISTORY WILL THEY LEAVE IT ORIGINAL OR PAINT IT UP AS A NAVY BIRD?KEEP US POSTED THANKS MIKE

Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:23 am

Farting Elk, not mule.

Thanks :)

Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:11 pm

Farting Moose, actually. They don't have elk in Europe. Based on a Walt Disney cartoon.

BCNU,
Rob in dago

Thu Sep 09, 2004 11:52 am

I'm hoping that this bird will be restored as it was...

Flying Finn

Thu Sep 09, 2004 6:30 pm

we need photos

Buffalo BW-372

Sat Sep 11, 2004 5:21 pm

I'm glad many of y'all enjoyed my report on the arrival
of the Buffalo. It was quite a day and one I'll remember
for some time.

To my knowledge there has been no final decision on how
to proceed with BW-372. Several options were discussed
in my presence. I have no inside info on how they will
proceed other that to get everything conserved/preserved.

The photos will have to wait until after some of them appear
in Naval Aviation News. That's where the museum wants
them first.

Some of the Buffalo locations Villard told me about were new
to me.

Sorry about misidentifying the "farting" animal insignia. We
don't have a lot of elk or moose down here in L.A. (Lower
Alabama).

I have tried to answer the questions raised in response to
my initial post. My intent in the future is to visit from time
to time and take photos of the Buff as it progesses. I did
this with both the SB2U-2 and the SBD-2 (Bu2106) over
the years. I have probably a thousand shots of those birds.

Blue skies,
Owen

Mon Sep 13, 2004 5:47 pm

Sorry if this has already been posted elsewhere, but I just saw this on the Museum's website:

http://broadcast.illuminatedtech.com/di ... 1&sid=8442

It appears they plan to display it as found (due to its historical significance), with efforts to stabilize the structure to prevent further deterioration.

Good news, I say...

Mark

Comment to the Museum Director

Tue Sep 14, 2004 6:42 am

As to the message from the Museum Director I must say that it is really very understandable that "the organization responsible for the dispostion of the aircraft" has been very quiet after all the "efforts" they have done.
Berry

BW-372 arrival at NMNA

Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:53 am

The beginning of this thread contains a link to the story
I wrote describing the arrival of BW-372 at NMNA in August.
In it I promised to share the photos I took that day when
the time was right. Today is that day. You may wish to go
back and read the narrative to gain perspective on the photos.

Some of the photos are repetitive. This is because I was
shooting with two cameras to make sure some came out in
case there was a problem. Also, because it was still crated
it was impossible to get some shots I would have liked.

I hope everyone enjoys the photos. It was a day to remember!

Blue skies,
Owen



http://community.webshots.com/album/213341500lGPdho/0
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