A Northrop RF-61 ,click here for a link to Wikipedia article------------>P-61 Article
Veteran's day again. Thinking about my departed father and his still living brother and their service in the US military. The pic above I posted last year. Some Sgt. stripes my father wore. The round patch was off of one of his bags. The matchbook from the base in California he retired out of.
My father started his service at the end of WW2 , serving as part of the Japan occupation, and also serving in Korea and Viet Nam. He was in Photo Reconaissance.
My Uncle who lives in Canada was in artillery during WW2 and was part of the D-Day invasion. When I see him at Christmas, if he doesn't mind I'd like to talk about that time. He's about 85 I believe, and still driving.
An amazing group of aircraft enthusiasts and craftsmen in Pennsylvania, have recovered a wrecked lo-air miles P-61 from a mountain top in New Guinea. They are nearing a complete restoration of the aircraft...to a flying condition. A pretty amazing story, check it out. They are using parts from a P-61 that was being used as a fire fighting plane in California, until it suffered a 'hard landing', and it was decided not to rebuild it.
My father talked about how the time he spent in the P-61 (aka F-15 or later as the RF-61) as being one of the high points of his military career, and probably one of the more exciting and dangerous times. Not that there were not other exciting or dangerous times. He really didn't speak about it much, because for a long time this was all still classified stuff you didn't talk about. I'm finding all kinds of interesting articles on the web now.
Here's to all who served in the services, past, present and future.
Here are some links to other WW2 aircraft that have been found.
Two links about a P-38 found deep under the ice in Greenland, and dubbed 'Glacier Girl'
Click here-------->P-38 found in ice and click here--------->'Glacier Girl'
Click here for----------->P-40 found in Sahara desert
Larry are these the same guys that recovered and rebuilt a plane that was found in Greenland a few years back? Can't remember what it was, P-38 seems to come to mind but could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if any of these guys were involved with the one you are thinking about. Found a link to an article about the P-38 found in Greenland, dubbed 'Glacier Girl'. I'll put it on this post in a bit. Also found a couple more links to found WW2 aircraft I'll put up as well.Then there was the B-29 that an attempt was made to refurbish and fly out only to end in disaster when it caught fire and burned. There are youtubes of the TV show that was on about that one. A lot of planes got ditched and left behind. Time capsules waiting to be discovered. The P-38 was recovered from below 260 feet of ice. Pretty amazing.
DeleteHairman, nice stuff mate, I remember when the wreck was located in PNG, it was on the news down here, great to hear they've come so far with it . . . when dad was alive he told me quite a bit about his time in WWII, he joined in 1940, but after that I learned very little as he ended up in Naval Intelligence until he retired in 1976, probably not unlike your old man, it was all hush-hush . . . the blacked out shot reminded me of the Black Widow, always loved the Lightning format and variations thereof.
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