Recent content by Rick the Librarian

Good answers - I'm especially impressed by the guy who recognized the A-27s!! They were "beefed up" AT-6s that were designed as light attack planes and destined for Thailand. They were intercepted on the Manila docks and used as hacks and trainers. I recognized #61 from some captured...

You're correct - mostly PBYs of Patrol Wing 10 (PatWing 10) - however, there were a few others. OS2Us, a couple of SOCs and J2Fs. One J2F was sunk as it lay moored. It was raised, repaired and became "The Candy Clipper", carrying supplies, medicines passengers and (yes) candy to Bataan and...

The P-35A was an export version of the Army's standard P-35. A slightly bigger engine, another .50 caliber gun in each wing and a few other modifications. Although a little more manuverable than the P-40, they were no match for the Zero is several categories. The ones not shipped to the...

One and the same. Sam Grashio, one of his fellow pilots said that Ed would be enjoying a good laugh in the Great Beyond over the fact that Dyess AFB was a SAC base, while Ed Dyess was a fighter pilot!! :)

Boyd Wagner escaped from the Philippines, and if I remember correctly, added a couple of more kills. Unfortunately, like a number of pilots, he was killed in a flying accident in late 1942. Another outstanding pilot was William E. Dyess, commander of the 21st PS I talked to a number of...

They fared very poorly. Over half were destroyed on the ground in the first day or two. They had to learn tactics against Japanese aircraft the hard way. The P-35s were used by the 34th Pursuit Squadron and as I said, the P-26s were used by the Filipinos. A few P-26s actually got into combat...

In the 1980s, I did research on U.S. military aircraft in the Philippines and had a number of articles published. Pictures of these aircraft are relatively rare and the saga of how I got some of these could have "written" another article. I thought I'd share a few of them with you. Clark...