SeabeeCook
Recruit
- 3
- Oct 29, 2016
I am trying to identify the TBF on the aircraft carrier flight deck. The aviator is my father, Ens. Charles Karoly, USNR. The only time that he flew off of a CV was during carrier qualifications after WW2. My father said that he took carrier qualification on the USS Sangri-La (CV-38) in the spring of 1946. In 1946, the Sangri-La conducted carrier qualification in three locations: off Norfolk, Virginia, March 4-7 and off San Diego, California, April 23-26 and April 30-May 9. (The Shangri-La departed San Diego for Operation Crossroads (Bikini Island atomic tests) on May 21, 1946.)
If his memory was accurate (he wrote his WW2 memoirs in the mid-90 and passed on in 2007), the TBF would've belonged to VT-98, NAS Los Alimitos or NAS San Diego (North Is.). However, dad's "Notice of Separation from U.S. Naval Service" (NAVPERS-533) states that he completed 12 weeks VT operational training at NAS Fort Lauderdale followed by 8 weeks carrier qualification at NAS Cecil Field, all done in the first half of 1946. So, it's possible that he took carrier quals on the East Coast, not the West Coast.
I's appreciate any insight into the identification of this aircraft.
Thanks,
MSCS Steven C. Karoly, USN, Ret.
If his memory was accurate (he wrote his WW2 memoirs in the mid-90 and passed on in 2007), the TBF would've belonged to VT-98, NAS Los Alimitos or NAS San Diego (North Is.). However, dad's "Notice of Separation from U.S. Naval Service" (NAVPERS-533) states that he completed 12 weeks VT operational training at NAS Fort Lauderdale followed by 8 weeks carrier qualification at NAS Cecil Field, all done in the first half of 1946. So, it's possible that he took carrier quals on the East Coast, not the West Coast.
I's appreciate any insight into the identification of this aircraft.
Thanks,
MSCS Steven C. Karoly, USN, Ret.
