Lt. Colonel Tinker in front of his B-10 The Bird-o-Prey XIII
Bird of Prey XIII- The San Pablo Bay B-10
Hamilton Field opened in 1934 as the home of the 7th Bombardment Group and its B-10 bombers, which were called the air power, wonder of their day. The B-10 was 1.5 times as fast as any biplane bomber, and faster than any contemporary fighter.
Bird-O-Prey XIII was originally the personal aircraft of Hamilton's commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Clarence L. Tinker. On November 24th, 1936 Lt. Col. George E. Stratemeyer, who was the commander of the 7th Bombardment Group, was returning from Muroc AAF (now Edwards AFB) in Bird-O-Prey XIII when he was forced to ditch in a shallow section of San Pablo Bay while approaching Runway 30 at Hamilton. All four crewmen survived and were rescued. The cause of the accident was listed as "carburetor ice."
Bird-O-Prey XIII remains in San Pablo Bay today and is visible a low tide. It is one of the two "complete" B-10s remaining today; the other is restored at the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio.
It is in the waters just off of the now closed Hamilton Field.
I'm looking for help to recover parts from it. Anyone interested?