WW2 Reunion 339th Fighter Group

Had the opportunity to bring my P-51 to the reunion of the 339th fighter squadron in Kenosha Wisconsin. After 23 years with my name on the airplane I surprised Bob Frisch for whom the airplane is painted after, by replacing my name on the airplane with his.

Only 8 pilot's were able to make it, but this is a good turn out since Bob is the youngest at 89. Most of them were 91 or older. I got a chance to talk with Stephen Ananian again, he had 4 kills and he described several encounters with ME-262's and one were he shot one down.

Bob is the 3rd from the left and Stephen Ananian is 4th. Larry Powell is 2nd from left. He was burned in a RF-84 explosion while in the Air Guard.

Here is more information on the 339th 339th Fighter Group
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SO awesome. Bless all of you.

 

Hats off to you sir!

 

Kudos, and high points for style. Thanks for sharing.

 

What an amazing post on so many levels!

 

Great thing to do, Mike.

 

That's great!
Did you go with them to the "buffet lunch at Mader's German Restaurant"?

the stories they could tell....

 

What a nice thing to do. Of course, if I owned a P-51 (!), I might have done likewise.

 

Mike- I bet that was really appreciated and your aircraft is beautiful. Looks like a lot of work with Nevr Dull.

Amazing they got that many of the pilots together. My father's P-47D unit, the 86th FBG, stopped having reunions after nearly all the primary players died, including my father at age 82. The way I figure it, the youngest WW-II veterans were 17 in 1945, which means they were born in 1928. So the youngest among them are 85, and most who saw operational flying are much older, like that group of pilots.

 

I was born in 1926, signed up in '43, went active in '44 and chased after a cadet class for a year without luck but I got to fly in a lot of stuff. I was thinking about that last night and came up with; L-5,AT-6, AT-7, C-60, B-34, B-17, B-24, B-25, and after the war B-29, and P-51" Worry Bird" ( when Jack Rose owned it). I have flown and flown in a lot of other stuff but all that gets boring. Nothing to match those hero's that Mike visited, they really did something.

 

I have never seen a P-51 but did get to see a single plane do a flyover over the stadium at College Station for the A&M vs SMU game. We were sitting high-up in the closed-end of the stadium and it approached very low from the open end of the stadium. That plane makes a great sound, even from a distance.

 

I had the Springfield Historical Society at my hanger for their meeting last week and I related a story about some of these guys (all in fun).

When my wife and I (then my girlfriend) would go to airshows I would have to keep an eye on her as the WW2 pilots were still on point and every time I turned around one of them was targeting my girlfriend. The nearly 40 year age difference didn't seem to slow them down at all.

The WW2 pilots were the heroes of the day I believe like the sports figures of today, but with a much bigger following. They were the best of the best or as Stephen Ananian said they did not live very long.

Most of the current owners I know love to be around the veterans as they came from an era were warriors were revered and they wanted to be warriors. They were the last of the gunfighters. I have been told that the old west gunfights never happened in real life, there certainly were gunfights in WW1 and WW2.

The Mustang has a lot of dark corners that will kill you. If you add combat to the flight the corners are exponentially more dangerous. And these pilot's volunteered to get into that fight.

I was at the Mustang gathering in 1999 and Robin Olds walked into a room of nearly 1,000 people. His personality took over the entire room in no time. There were literally hundreds of people around him and you could hear him form across the room.

He was like a movie star, professional football player, and hero warrior all built into one person.

It has been one of my greatest accomplishments to call several WW2 pilots my friend over the last 24 years.

 

I wouldn't call any of them "friends", but I've met quite a few in my time: Francis Gabreski, Hub Zemke, Bud Mahurin, Pappy Boyington and Geoffrey Page, along with more recent heroes like Robin Olds and Randy Cunningham. All great men.

 

Had a reasonably long conversation with Greg Boyington at an airshow East of Denver, CO, many years ago... but he was Corsair, not Mustang.

 

Just got my airplane back today. It broke on the way to Kenosha. Trouble started about 50 miles out, the coolant gauge started to move up a little and then it started to move off of 99 degrees to 105 Then about 10 miles out there was a loud bang. My passenger felt it on his feet. I pulled the power back and watched it real close for those last 10 miles. The engine did cool off very well which is a good sign. Not knowing what the problem was I entered the downwind at 3,500 feet, which makes for a pretty steep approach into an airport at 700 feet. Especially since I was on a very close in downwind like I always do.

Turns out the gauge had a problem with the canon plug on the probe end and the emergency release for the coolant door released on it's own due to a clearance issue with the cable and the oxygen system. Just my luck 2 related problems that happened on the same flight.

If I would of tried a go around the engine would of failed since the door could not open enough to keep the engine cool.

 

wow, pretty close one!!!

What is a "canon plug"?
Is the coolant door that opened on it's own the flap/exhaust duct at the rear of the oil cooler scoop?
So this stuck open only part way, and at landing speeds it must be fully open?
Good thing you weren't flying in TX with 20F higher ambient :/

 

Wow, amazing post and pic. My hat's off to you.

Best Wishes!

 

That is very cool on so many levels

Thanks

 

A Cannon plug is used to connect one bundle to another through a bulkhead or to connect a bundle to a piece of equipment by a series of pins on the "male" side and receptacles on the "female" side. They were produced by the Cannon company, hence the name. They are rather big and heavy and I don't believe they are used now. From what I have seen and noticed on the P-51 radiator outlet, it is opened wide at low speeds to allow more air to flow through the radiator. At high speed the opening is reduced because of the increase flow in the air intake and to produce some thrust from the expanded air in the plenum behind the radiator. If this doesn't sound right it's because I made it up...better check with Mike or Sparky.

 

Cannon Plug...

You've seen them, just didn't know the name...

Cannon Plug | eBay

 

Positive twist to lock connectors.

 

aha thanks, and right on about seeing them just not knowing the name

Sounds good to me Bob!

Here's a photo I took of that area on Moonbeam McSwine, kinda like looking up her skirt

And another one, by someone else, when she's kicking up her heels (exhaust vent/coolant door looks more open than in F4's top pic, but still not full open I think?)
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Connections inside the canon plug were dirty, which happens. Just my bad luck that I had 2 issues and they were related in such a way to make things look bad in the cockpit.

Bob stayed in the military for 30 years flying P-40's, P-51's, F-86, F-89, F-102 and the F-106. He was let out of the service in 1945 and rejoined as a Sargent in order to be first in line for a pilot slot. I think he was enlisted for a little over a year.

He had completed his required mission time (I think 300 hours) and was already home when the war ended. His 21rst birthday occurred after the war ended.

After he put in his 30 years he went into real estate and retired from that occupation as well.

Over the years I have given him rides in the P-51, the Soko Galeb and the Extra 300. He liked the Extra the best and he loved to do aerobatics in it even though he was in his 80's at the time. It was remarkable how well he flew it even though it had been over thirty years since he had flown an aircraft.

He is a picture of Bob with Worry Bird
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Quite a life!!!

Would you mind sharing some of the history of your P-51?

I see on mustangsmustangs.com it was built in '45 and traveled around the states (SC, CA, AZ, KY?) quite a bit, then almost scrapped in '56(?). Apparently "saved" and then restored to "Worry Bird" in '74.
Do you know why "Worry Bird"?
How many total hours on the airframe?

Any interesting tidbits (which would be just about any of them!) about the plane you'd care to share would be neat to read.

thanks!

 

If I may add a little bit to my side of this story. I knew Jack Rose who restored the aircraft and took it to Oshkosh and got top award for the restoration. When I was on the committee of the B-17 50th celebration at Boeing I invited Jack to bring his P-51 and he accepted. When he was scheduled to fly in the first day's aerial parade he asked me if I would like to go with him and after a lengthy period of considering his invitation I accepted. I think that it took about a millisecond. We were in formation with several WW2 fighters including a Zero and a P-47 flying in formation with 4 B-17's and a B-25. Quite an experience. later in the year I did a drawing of "Worry Bird" for the Spencer Aircraft calendar and put it in a gallery on Boeing Field. It was then purchased by Mike G. who is now the current owner.
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