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This is one of the videos I promised. It's the news report from December, 1988 about the dedication of the Flying Tiger Heritage Air Park at England Air Force Base, Louisiana. It's a 5.5MB download.

http://cid-990d33c2e67cf7cf.skydrive.li ... 20Park.wmv

Here's a link to the streaming version of the video:

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/categ ... 42FmBxbMR8

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-=> Carroll McAllister <=-

coming to you \"almost live\" from Searcy, Arkansas

Thanks for the video. Very nice to watch.

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73-1664

You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Since this was one of the smaller videos I had to upload, I used it as a trial run, to make sure that the whole process would work correctly. I *think* the next videos I upload will be the two recordings from the gun camera of one of our demo A-10s as it flew the demos. Quite interesting for those of us that aren't fortunate enough to personally experience the A-10 in flight (too bad the 2-seater never entered production.)

There were actually two of the original Flying Tigers at that ceremony that day, if I recall correctly. Goose and some of the other old Flying Tigers can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Tex Hill was there as well. At least, I know that the day Tex Hill *was* there (whenever it was), a P-47 Thunderbolt (yes, the "ancestor" of the A-10 Thunderbolt II) painted exactly like his P-47 from WWII was there. He got to see that P-47 fly with one of our A-10s in one of the first "Heritage flights" (modern USAF aircraft flying with USAF aircraft from years past.)

Anyway, a lot of the original Flying Tigers lived in the Central Louisiana area, as Gen. Claire Chennault was originally from that area (again, if I remember correctly.) We often saw folks like Ed Rector at different base functions and events. I believe I saw in the news a while back that Ed Rector had passed away. I don't know if Tex Hill is still with us or not.

The P-40 Warhawk that you see in the video is no longer "flying" at that air park. When the 23rd Fighter Wing moved to Pope AFB in 1992, they moved the P-40 as well. A fighter (F-80?) from one of the earlier units that was stationed there, is now in the spot formerly occupied by the P-40.

On a side note, from what I understand, the P-40 they rebuilt was found sunk in the ocean somewhere. Again, Goose can correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the discussion about where it was found.

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-=> Carroll McAllister <=-

coming to you \"almost live\" from Searcy, Arkansas

I think now that from the original Flying Tigers almost everybody passed away.

The two seater Warthog. Nice plane. If you see, i got the number of that plane always under mine messages.

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73-1664

The actual tail number of the A10 "on the pole" at the Air Park in the video is 73-1667. It's from the series of six "DT&E" (Development, Test and Evaluation) aircraft that were built in the early days of the program.

While that particular A10 was never assigned to the 23rd Fighter Wing when it was flying, it did land at England Air Force Base once on a cross country trip. I don't know if it suffered a "hard landing" on that trip, or if the hard landing was experienced elsewhere, but that aircraft had been involved in a hard landing event.

Somewhere, I've got a photograph of me standing beside that same aircraft. It served as a technical training school aircraft at Shepherd AFB, Texas for a number of years. "Aircraft mechanics in training" were all over 73-1667 for several years, until it was shipped to England AFB to "fly" on the pole.

It had recently arrived at Shepherd not too long before I did in June of 1985, if I recall correctly. I'm sure Dice could probably correct me if I'm wrong on the details of when it flew it's last flight into Shepherd.

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-=> Carroll McAllister <=-

coming to you \"almost live\" from Searcy, Arkansas