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Sad news to hear. It saddens me to see that some of the original architects of Close Air Support....the mission the P-47 was given following the P-51 arriving on scene and taking over the air-air gig.....are getting much fewer and fewer in number.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/scot ... t07Z8.html

This is my favorite WWII fighter, close 2nd is the P-38.

I knew there was somethign I liked about you, Trit!<img src=icon_smile_approve.gif border=0 align=middle>

The continued passing of the "greatest generation".<img src=newicons/smiley_salute.gif border=0 align=middle>

"Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together...." - Carl Zwanzig


Edited by - 30mike-mike on May 09 2005 04:17 AM

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\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

<img src=newicons/smiley_salute.gif border=0 align=middle>

"The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see their near and dear bathed in tears, to ride their horses and sleep on the white bellies of their wives and daughters."
-Genghis Khan

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\"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. \"

George S. Patton

<img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=newicons/anim_bow.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=newicons/icon_hog.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=newicons/smiley_salute.gif border=0 align=middle>

"GLAD TO HAVE BEEN THERE AND HAVE BEEN PROUD TO HAVE SERVERED"

<img src=newicons/smiley_salute.gif border=0 align=middle>

<b>There are two kinds of soldiers.
Snipers...and targets.</b>
<img src="http://www.creedmoorsports.com/images/SA9121-M21.JPG" border=0>

I remember reading Robert S Johnsons biography titled "Thunderbolt". Theres this fight with an FW190 that gets the better of him. He said he hunkered down in front of the armor plate , pulled his legs up and just hid behind it while the Focke Wolf just tore his airplane up. When it was all done he could see through the wings and FW190 ran out of bullets. The guy made it home. They scrapped the airplane.
The very first HEMI engine Chrysler made went into a P47.

By this time tomorrow I shall have gained either a pearage or Westminster Abbey........Nelson

Edited by - Hawg166 on May 27 2005 8:59 PM

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YGBSM !

one of the really unique flights I made in the HOG was in 1980 or 1981....the Thundebolt Pilot's Reunion was in Phoenix. I took off from D-M that Sunday morning and joined up with a P-47 to make several low passes over Goodyear Airport in Phoenix in fingertip formation with him....we left to the east and I got him to fly out front while I taped him through the gun camera..I remember when we finally split up he accelerated away straight ahead from 250 KIAS to probably 400 in nothing flat! Sad to see that generation fading into memory so quickly now...Cheers

Col R. C. Lemon

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On God's wing, to Heaven i fly.

This thread reminds me of an engineer geek "There I was" story. It was about 1973 and we were doing the A-10 production airplane. The company founder, Alexander Kartveli, could still be seen now and then among the engineers at the drawing boards. I overheard a converstion among external armament carriage designers that amounted to a pissing contest. A designer was laying out some pylon details when an unsolicited comment was made by a more experienced man. He said: "We did it this way on the F-105". Not to be outdone, another engineer wanted to show his superior status by saying: "Well son, you should do it the way we did on the F-84's". That prompted the statement from a graybeard designer who dropped the nuke on the subject. "Boys", he said, "This is the way we did it on the P-47". There was a reverential silence, and that was the end of that discussion. I took a look around the large engineering "bull pen" we were in and realized a lot of history must have been made there. Time marches on. The redeveloped site is a Home Depot and a multiplex theatre now.

THE RAMPTOR ENGINEERING TEAM <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
"Who cares if it works? Does it look good on the ramp?"

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????

Great story Stress, thanx for sharing it.

<b>There are two kinds of soldiers.
Snipers...and targets.</b>
<img src="http://www.creedmoorsports.com/images/SA9121-M21.JPG" border=0>