Quote:
Originally Posted by bugstrider
That is a cool story. My great uncle worked on P-47’s during the war. I wished I could have heard “ALL” of his stories. I was told many but I think it was just a fraction. Interesting things done to the birds to keep them flying sorte after sorte.
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Dad had some very cool stories, I also wish I had asked more questions.
He mentioned that there were also bombers stationed not too far from their base and when they saw them in the air they would practice their strafing... he said the bomber pilots didn't appreciate that much.
When the P-40's came back from China they sent a couple to his base and they were allowed to fly them. Imaging handing the keys to a P-40 to a 18 year old.
They did practice strafing runs on ground targets with live ammo, dad said when you pulled the trigger in a dive you could feel the plane slow down. On one practice dad was last in line and the instructor told him to empty his guns so they could go back to base, dad dove, pulled he trigger, firing, firing, firing... pulled out at the last moment and almost flew the plane into the ground.
When he left the AF he was in the reserves... one weekend they asked him to fly a B-29. Dad was pretty sure it was just a fly along, nope, they put him in the pilots seat (they had a bomber pilot in the co seat).
