Was was the disaster in 1949?
it was late 48 or 49. My father was commanding the 35FBW out of Johnson AFB (Erv Ethell, Jeff's father was a sqdrn CO) flying a war game strike at Tachikawa or Itazuki (can't remember the specific details.
Future 4 star, 2lt John Flynn was assigned to fly wing to an un named Capatin who had tried to ground himself (he told his CO he was afraid to fly anymore) but refused based on only a short time before rotation home. They were the 'hot flight' on alert.
The 35th attacked, caught everyone by suprise, and the two 51's with Flynn scrambled, climbed for altitude and dove on the second squadron of the 35th as they were about to make second or third pass.
The Captain lost control and collided with one of the Mustangs, both ships exploded, the debris hit the flight line dead center and destroyed (I think) one C-124, several Mustangs and several brand new P-80s.
5th AF CG General Ted Timberlake fired the base commander, my father, and (according to Flynn) a lowly 2nd LT. If my father's 'godfather' had not been General Pat Timberlake, older brother and out ranked Ted, my father's career would have been over. As it was he lost the 35th and was in the doghouse until Korean War started and he made Full Colonel shortly afterwards..
This was USAF that had zero tolerance for accidents and CO took the hit independent of responsibility. Kinda stupid but there it was.
At the end of the day he did not get to lead the Mustang unit with such high losses to flak, which lost his successor shortly after war started.